Greek protesters, police clash as MPs debate austerity plan

Greek police on Sunday used tear gas on petrol bomb-throwing protesters outside parliament where lawmakers were debating a new austerity plan aimed at staving off bankruptcy. Police said some 30,000 protesters were massed outside the building and at nearby Omonia Square, with some 3,000 police deployed and more protesters arriving. Another 15,000 were gathered in Greece\'s second city Thessaloniki. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told parliament that it must approve the government-approved plan needed to unlock a 130 billion euro ($171 billion) rescue fund from the EU and the IMF or Greece would be forced to default. \"The situation is very clear. Tonight at midnight before the markets open the Greek parliament must send the message that our nation can and will (support the debt deal),\" Venizelos said. \"Today we must understand, and persuade Greek citizens, that when you have to choose between bad and worse, you will choose the bad to avoid the worst,\" he added. On the eve of the vote, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos warned the country that \"we are a breath away from Ground Zero.\" He urged deputies to grasp their \"historic responsibility\" to secure the country\'s financial future and warned of \"economic and social catastrophe\" if parliament failed to agree to the deeply unpopular cuts needed to secure the international rescue. Sunday\'s protesters included trade unionists, youths with shaven heads waving Greek flags, communist activists and left-wing sympathisers, many of them equipped with gas masks. Many families also joined in the rally, although the square was quickly cleared after the first round of teargas was fired, before filling up again. They denounced what they describe as blackmail being imposed by the international troika of the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank in return for the bailout. \"It\'s not easy to live in these conditions,\" said 49-year-old engineer Andreas Maragoudakis. \"By 2020 we will be the Germans\' slaves.\" Another protester, Stella Maguina, 33, told AFP: \"We are here for our parents and our children, for all those who can\'t come.\" Civil engineer Anastasia Papadaki, 27 said \"the measures are not the solutions to the problem as they will not bring growth. \"It\'s just the international community blackmailing us.\" The deputies, who were not expected to vote on the measure before 2200 GMT, are being asked to approve moves to recapitalise Greek banks, which may involve a degree of nationalisation if they cannot get sufficient private money. They must also back a bond swap agreed with private creditors, which is designed to wipe out around 100 billion euros from Greece\'s 350 billion euro debt, reducing the country\'s massive debt burden to 120 percent of GDP. Venizelos said the government must carry out the bond swap by Friday in order to prevent bankruptcy. If that deadline passes, \"we will not be able to swap the bonds by March 5, (and) we won\'t have time to resolve the issue of paying the bonds that mature between March 14 and 20,\" Venizelos said, adding: \"If that does not happen, the country will be bankrupt.\" If deputies reject the package, however, Greece will not get the funds it needs by March 20 to repay nearly 14.5 billion euros in maturing debt. \"We look into the eyes of the Greek people with full consciousness of our historic responsibility. The social cost of this programme is limited in comparison with the economic and social catastrophe that would follow if we do not adopt it,\" Papademos warned Saturday in his televised address. \"The standard of living of Greeks would collapse in the case of a disorderly bankruptcy. The country would drift into the long spiral of recession, instability, unemployment and prolonged misery.\" The two remaining parties in the ruling coalition, PASOK and the smaller conservative New Democracy, back the measures and account for 236 of parliament\'s 300 deputies, but some MPs are certain to reject the measures. However, there are signs of growing unrest in the government ranks. Two PASOK junior ministers and four members of the far-right LAOS party quit the cabinet in protest in the run-up to the vote. The head of the International Finance Institute, Charles Dallaras, urged MPs to pass the painful measures, telling the daily Kathimerini that beyond austerity \"there are many tangible benefits for Greece and the Greek people\". But the proposed measures are expected to heap more hardship on ordinary Greeks already suffering from the crisis. They involve a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage (32 percent for workers under 25); deregulating the labour market to make it easier to lay off workers; and a package of tax and pension reforms.