RIOTS, petrol bombs, tear gas and strikes greeted the Greek's government's latest attempt to persuade its citizens of the merits of reducing the country's budget deficit. In Athens demonstrators stormed up to the very steps of the parliament building, where an austerity plan was about to be debated, calling on the parliamentary “thieves” to come out. Three people were killed when protesters set fire to a bank building on Wednesday May 5th. Hours later, with tear gas drifting through the adjacent square, parliamentary leaders held a brief, sombre exchange on the signficance of the deaths, vowing to protect the principle that protest must be peaceful. Many citizens agreed that it was a sad moment for the birthplace of democracy.
Yet Athenians were also saying, with wistful smiles, that it had been a good party while it lasted. The backdrop to the riots was that, in a mixed mood of resignation, black humour and bitterness, Greeks were bidding farewell to a decade in which everything good and bad about their country grew feverishly. There were sporting and cultural extravaganzas, starting with the 2004 Olympics. Archaeological sites were spruced up, new buildings erected. The middle class grew larger and more sophisticated. And many people at the lower end of the pile breathed a bit easier, if only because immigrants from poorer places came to harvest their olives and work in their restaurants.
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