English Source[...]
Greece's international lenders have made clear that the new bailout package, which would replace a 110 billion euro deal agreed only a year ago, depends on Athens keeping to its promises for further austerity and accelerated privatizations.
But the government is under huge pressure, not from the hooded radicals who battled police in the early days of the austerity drive, but from ordinary Greeks who are suffering badly under pay and pension cuts and soaring unemployment.
On Sunday night people from Athens and far beyond the capital crammed into the city's Syntagma Square to show they are close to the limit of their endurance.
"Thieves - hustlers - bankers," read one banner raised above a sea of splayed hands waved at the parliament building which overlooks the square, an offensive gesture in Greek culture.
Turnout was the biggest so far in a series of 12 nightly rallies inspired originally by Spain's protest movement.
Police put the turnout at 80,000, but many were stuck in side streets, unable to squeeze into the square, and protesters accuse authorities of routinely underestimating their numbers.
TAX FURY
Greeks on modest salaries are furious that they have to pay ever higher taxes in the drive to reduce a towering budget deficit, while they believe the self-employed such as doctors and lawyers are guilty of flagrant tax evasion.
"Instead of going after tax cheats, they are raising taxes and cutting working people's pay," said Yannis Mylonakos, 34, who lost his job at an advertising agency and joined Greece's army of unemployed, which has hit 15.9 percent of the workforce.
No relief is in sight. The medium-term plan aims for a further 22 billion euros in austerity steps in 2012-15.
On Sunday, some banners evoked the Arab Spring movement to oust authoritarian rule. "From Tahrir Square to Syntagma Square, we support you!" read one banner.
Others showed helicopters in an apparent reference to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's flight from Cairo in February after weeks of popular protests on the city's Tahrir Square.
Papandreou has used his parliamentary majority to ram through successive rounds of austerity. But faced with the popular anger, some PASOK lawmakers are becoming uneasy.
[...]
This whole thing is incredible. It all started with a few dozen, maybe a couple hundred people, getting organized over the net and protesting on Athens' central square right in front of the parliament, following the example set by the middle eastern rebellions. Me, and many others, thought that it'd die out with no effect within days. But it all snowballed from there. More and more people hit the streets every night, until today we had the most massive protests in years. Reuters says 80,000, but all the local media report more than 100,000, and about 200,000 throughout the country. And it's even more incredible because, for the first time since I can remember, no formal organization backs the protesters. No party has made an appearance, no leader is accepted. The "Indignants", as the movement is called, are all united by their disdain for the political system, the people who man it, all the sacrifices they demand of the common people while they've given up nothing, and perhaps most importantly, all the crimes they've gotten away with. I still don't know if this'll have any effect. But the cronies we have in power have been forced to acknowledge the movement, something they were loathe to do. And no one can now blame the people for not caring, as many of our pundits did before.
And some local articles. First and third one are from Athens, while the second is from Thessalonica and other major cities. It's all Greek to you, I know, but they have some decent photos and videos.
