Athens is Burning

Athens is Burning

The numbers are staggering.

The Greek Parliament met Sunday to ratify austerity measures, which were part of the latest bailout negotiations, with the nation’s creditors. While the deal was being debated inside, more than 100,000 Athenians gathered outside the Parliament buildings at Syntagma Square, facing a police force of 5,000. By the end of the evening, the measures passed by a vote of 199 in favour and 74 opposed, with 27 abstentions or blank ballots; 43 of the MPs who voted against the measures were expelled by their political parties; fires were set by protesters, leading to over 40 burning buildings; 150 shops were looted; over 120 people were injured – half of those police officers; and 67 people were arrested. Similar violence occurred across Greece: in the country's second-largest city, Thessaloniki, in Patra, Volos, and on the islands of Crete and Corfu.

The austerity measures that passed include a 22 per cent cut in the minimum wage, and 150,000 government layoffs by 2015. Greece is in its third year of recession, with an unemployment rate of 20.9 per cent -- over 42 per cent for people aged 15 to 24. One million Greeks are currently out of work. The daily lives of working class Greeks are bleak, and their ability to cope with the austerity measures is in question.

Which is leading Greeks to question what is worse -- an unstructured default and life outside the Eurozone, or having outside creditors dictate the quality of Greek life for the next decade or so. Greek journalist @NickMalkoutzis, Deputy Editor of Kathimerini's English edition, Greece's only daily English language newspaper, tweeted last night:

Below, you'll find The Agenda’s full coverage of Greece's troubles.

Follow me on Twitter @sandragionas