Greek police and firefighters protest austerity cuts, Anti-Merkel demo in Spain

Описание: (6 Sep 2012) Demonstrations against harsh austerity measures to tackle Europe's debt crisis continued in Greece and Spain on Thursday.
After 2 1/2 years of punishing austerity, new cutbacks planned by Greece's conservative-led governing coalition have sparked deep anger, spawning unusual protests by workers such as judges and police.
In Athens, thousands of police, firefighters and coast guard officers marched through the city to oppose planned pay cuts under a huge new austerity package meant to save Greece from defaulting on its debt.
The 4,000 protesters shouted slogans such as "thieves, thieves," "Shame, you're delivering the final blow to the security forces," and "come out and see how low you have brought us," as they marched to the Finance Ministry.
They set up mock triple gallows on an open-top van, with a sign reading "Troika" - in reference to the austerity inspectors from the European Union, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank.
An officer from each of the services - police, coast guard, and firefighter - stood with his head in a noose.
Christos Giousias, a 32-year-old coast guard, said he was protesting because the government had promised that their wages would rise, but instead they were looking at their pay falling.
"We want our integrity back, as well as the money they have promised us. We want to know why, before the election, they said they would raise our salaries and now we are seeing another six percent drop," he said.
The peaceful anti-government demonstration came amid deepening social gloom as official figures showed Greece's unemployment rate surged to 24.4 percent in June, including more than 1.2 (m) million people out of work, many of them youths.
It was the latest in a string of protests against the new 11.5 (b) billion euro (14.4 (b) billion US dollar) austerity package for 2013-14, demanded by rescue creditors from other eurozone countries and the IMF.
Meanwhile, in Madrid, several hundred people gathered outside the European Union's headquarters to protest what they said was Germany's meddling in Spain's economy and the ratcheting up of pain for everyday Spaniards.
Some carried banners reading, "No to a German Europe" and "Merkel No, a IV Reich No."
The protest came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel was visiting the Spanish capital to discuss tackling the ongoing financial crisis in Europe with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
The two have been at odds over how to defeat the economic problems affecting the 17-nation bloc, which has led to wide unemployment and harsh fiscal cuts across the eurozone, as financially-struggling countries try to manage their debts.
Rajoy has so far not requested a bailout from the eurozone, but did acknowledge that Spain had to control its public finances.
His government has been cutting spending and enacting economic reforms to try to pull it out of a double-dip recession and lower an unemployment rate that stands at almost 25 percent - the highest among countries using the shared currency.
Protesters in Madrid on Thursday evening disagreed with the austerity cuts, saying it would be better to focus on measures for growth.
"The first thing should be to audit the debt to have an exact control on expenses and where it comes from, and making growing policies, instead of austerity," said one protester.

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