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Subscribe to RSSHundreds of anti-austerity protesters in Greece have been remembering one of their own. In front of the parliament in Athens a 77-year-old retired pharmacist killed himself. In a note he said government cuts wiped out his pension and robbed him of his dignity. ITV's Martin Geissler reports.
ATHENS -- An elderly Greek's suicide outside parliament has quickly become a symbol of the pain of austerity and has been seized upon by opponents of the budget cuts imposed by Greece's international lenders.
Dimitris Christoulas, 77, shot himself in the head on Wednesday after declaring that financial troubles pushed him over the edge. A suicide note said the retired pharmacist preferred to die than scavenge for food.
The highly public -- and symbolic -- nature of the suicide prompted an outpouring of sympathy from ordinary Greeks, who held a protest march and set up an impromptu shrine with notes condemning the crisis at the spot where he killed himself.
The BBC reported that violence flared at the demonstration on Wednesday night, with some protesters hurling Molotov cocktails at police. They responded by firing tear gas.
"As you walk around the streets of Athens and beyond you can see the social fabric tearing," the BBC's Mark Lowen said.
The conservative newspaper Eleftheros Typos called the victim a "martyr for Greece" and said his act was filled with "profound political symbolism" that could "shock Greek society and the political world and awaken their conscience" in the weeks before a parliamentary election that will determine Greece's future.
'Family man'
Anger was directed as much at politicians as it was at the austerity medicine prescribed by foreign lenders in return for aid to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis since the Second World War.
"It's horrible. We shouldn't have reached this point. The politicians in parliament who brought us here should be punished for this," said Anastassia Karanika, a 60-year-old retiree.
The head of the Attica Pharmacists' Union, Constantinos Lourantos reportedly told Skai radio that Christoulas was "a calm, family man."
John Kolesidis / Reuters
A mourner cries on Thursday at the spot where 77-year-old Dimitris Christoulas took his own life in Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece.
With the tragedy occurring barely a month before elections are expected in Greece, smaller parties opposed to harsh spending cuts included in the country's second bailout were quick to point the finger at bigger parties backing the rescue.
"Those who should have committed suicide -- who should have committed suicide a long time ago -- are the politicians who knowingly decided to bring this country and its people to this state of affairs," said Panos Kammenos, a conservative lawmaker who recently set up the Independent Greeks anti-austerity party.
Smaller parties like the Independent Greeks have been riding high in opinion polls at the expense of the two main co-ruling parties, the conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, backing the bailout.
The two big parties are together expected to take less than 40 percent of the vote. Losing more voters to the smaller parties could put them at risk of not having enough seats in parliament to forge a pro-bailout coalition again.
That in turn would have profound implications for Greece's finances, given continued aid from European partners and the International Montary Fund is contingent on Greece's new government pushing through reforms demanded as part of the bailout.
Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters
A protester throws a stone at police officers during rioting in Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday night.
Greek police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters taking part in a rally commemorating the death of Dimitris Christoulas.
Sorrow
New Democracy and PASOK, which have ruled Greece for decades, expressed their sorrow for the tragedy. Political opponents attacked them for joining in the mourning.
"Shame on them. The accomplices responsible for the suffering and despair of the Greek people ... should at least keep quiet in the face of the hideous results of the capitalist crisis and their policies, instead of pretending to be saviors and sensitive," the KKE Communist party said.
Resentment is growing in Greece over repeated rounds of wage and pension cuts that have compounded the pain from a slump which has seen the economy shrink by a fifth since 2008.
Unemployment has surged to a record 21 percent -- twice the eurozone average -- with one out of two young people without a job. The number of suicides has surged and many Greeks feel ordinary people like the retired pharmacist are being forced to pay for a crisis that was not of their making.
Economy-related suicides hit Italy
Meanwhile, an Italian man shot himself dead on Wednesday because his company was going bust, following a wave of economy-related suicides in the country which one opposition politician blamed on Prime Minister Mario Monti's reforms.
The 59-year-old Rome-based construction firm owner left a note apologizing to family members and explaining that his business had failed, police said.
A day earlier, a 78-year-old woman in Sicily jumped to her death because her monthly pension payments had been reduced. On Monday, a picture-frame maker hanged himself because of economic difficulties.
And last week, two men set themselves on fire in northern Italy due to financial woes. Both survived, one with severe burns.
Opposition politician Antonio Di Pietro, leader of the Italy of Values (IDV) party, criticized the government's reform agenda in parliament, and said Monti had the suicides of people who can't make it to the end of the month "on his conscience".
At a news conference on Wednesday, Monti refused to reply to the comments from Di Pietro, a fiery former anti-corruption magistrate, who was one of the harshest critics of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Italy is struggling with a recession, rising unemployment and increasingly severe austerity measures.
Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.
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When the food runs out, eat the rich.
It's amazing how many people on here think that the Bush Sub Prime Melt Down happened on Obamas watch.
They would make lousy History Teachers Just like Newt Gingrich!
Thank God we have the Internets and everyone can Google Hank Paulson!
Faux News routinely rewrites history. That's what propaganda outfits do.
But they won't call Newt Gingrich a slut.
boy what happened to hope and change??? now its anger and rage....we are on to you lord obozo
boy what happened to hope and change??? now its anger and rage....we are on to you lord obozo
Je vis bien en france, parce que je suis francaise with the american citizenship... why don't you start traveling france on google map ?? You can see our homes and beautiful country side...
Yes, I am appalled at many american's ignorance... many of you are brainwashed idiots !
Everytime you vote for a republican you shoot yourselves in the foot... if america is in such a mess today it is because of the republican party and noone else !
If it was not for democrats, you would have no social securite, no medicare, no vacation, no nothing !
all the good things you have received from your goverment came from democrats and it is maybe time that you realise it !!!
A goverment that work for the people will create with your taxes, programs that will benefit you all and that you have not understood yet... it is funny how none of you is outrage that your taxes goes to an insane military machine that do nothing good for you and your lives !! You are a stupid people for most of you ! Your taxes should be used to make your lives better, to rebuilt your infrastructures, to give you affordable health care ! Only a goverment that work for the people will do that !!!
Republican do not give a @!$%# about you, your lives or your families !! when are you going to get it ??
Hey, don't include me in with those fools!
yea right, says your average insane obozo supporter. Is that why people are moveing out of liberal states? and to conservitive states
o o prof obozo?, the gov spent 4 trillion last year and we have record poverty, record debt, record unempoyment and the schools roads and bridges are crumbling...
Easy on the Caffeine trubro before you blow a gasket!
LOL!
You're going to Stroke out if you're not careful!
Yes we know, and we know why:
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/brunitedstatescanadara/671.php?nid=&id=&pnt=671&lb=
I wish we had just let Hitler and the Nazis take over all of Europe, then the trash breeding pigs like Poodlepoop would not have survived. Inbreeding produces poodle lovers.
We have enough resources here in the Americas to last us, if we share with the EU and china ect..it will be gone in twenty years, if we close our doors now it will last maybe 200 years. The EU is down to running on fumes, without us to loot they will face the choir to stay alive. Beggars can't be too choosy. Imperialism has seen it's last days.
Hey one thing you don't have are great cheese and in general great food ! Your food supply is full of pesticides, OGMs and hormones !!!!
You cannot live on oil and you will die of cancer with your food supply that is poisonned !
Hey, we have survided for over 2000 years in europe.. don't worry, we will outlive you, too. Look at the mess you're in after 200 years ! Ridiculous !
and who says your average obozo supporter isn't a complete nutcase???
ajgor.....What a delusion are livng in. C A head shrinker, fast.
Ameericans are just plain stupid. Nothing more to say. They like to spout ble, lie, cheat, steal and start wars but vote for the party that is against their best interest. Go figure.
The Stock Market is 13,000 and the Right Wingers are still pissed.
They're pissed because it is at 13,000 on Obamas watch!
wow its alomost back to where it was...only 1500 more points. Is that obozos new slogan? " it could be worse???
The stock market is an illusion that will soon go the other direction, much faster.
It was down near 5000 at the End of Bushes term...
Do you remember, the Bush Sub Prime Melt Down and his Goldman Sachs buddy, Hank Paulson?
Or do you always have a Selective Memory?
The stock market is not a barometer for the general working public...never has been and will never be
Ted, The stock market was taken to 13000 because of fiat money. The government has printed and borrowed its way out the recession. The economic numbers do not support a market at the 13000 level (about 7500 - 8000 would be reasonable). When interest starts to increase because of short money supply or the printing presses at treasury stop due to inflation, the market will tank.
Regarding people that were instrumental in the melt down, Obama's Treasury Secretary Tim Geituner (sic?) was head of the New York Branch of the Federal Reserve (which had the power to clamp down on those lending practices) and in 2005 when Bush warned about the lending practices at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both Frank Dodd and Barney Frank [ (who's boyfriend was a top Fanny Mae official)both of whom are Democrats] stopped Congress from investigating these practices.
They ought to build a NAFTA highway across the EU a lot of good it will do them ehh with nothing to sell. You see how they think ! They think of us as fools. yeah Poodle Fan you laugh now, hopefully we will wisen up here and do what is right. From drilling for our own oil to planting more food, to bringing prices down to manufacturing in a clean environment . Yes we can become a nation again that supports individuals rights. It is not easy caring for a nation but it can be done successfully with the right checks and balances. It will take guts. !
This is globally happening! Here in the Great Lakes region of the United State unemployment is high and out desperation us adults are going into debt going to University to get an education only making the debt worse. The government says it is getting better but that is only because the judge unemployment by how many they are paying out to, not by how many can't even get unemployment compensation. It is terrifying.
And the same people who said of our poor and uninsured, "let them die" are thinking the same think about this guy and Greeks in general.
But some political parties are so twisted that any sign of being a humanitarian automatically makes one a socialist. That's the fear and hatred Rupert Murdoch and the Koch Bros have put into the people of the US. Christian-like? Not in the least.
Greece. the land of the selfish, want something-for-nothing, hate/covet the rich, marxist, welfare entitlement, retire early and live off the hard work and sweat of others, utopian delusional, and they will default on their debt.
The euro was always going to be and is today a failure! It will not ultimately continue; it will fail. The lazy selfish begger welfare lovinng countries like Greece stab the hard working frugal countries in the back.
To the American left, you are too blind to see, too selfish to understand - govt is NOT sacred; govt jobs HURT our economy; private ownership is a GOOD thing; if EVERYONE wanted to work and become 'rich', that would SOLVE the problem. But you see that as the problem. No, your utopian social beliefs destroy economies. Grow up and stop taking from others and go get a PRIVATE job!!!!!!
Rico, congratulation on your full acceptance of the Faux News Propaganda. Your ignorance and arrogance has been combined and elevated to exactly what Murdoch wants. The perfect pawn.
Most people in Greece have very small pensions which have been cut in half by austerity measures. The only people in Greece with money are the politicians who have bled the system dry and the rich elite who have easily bypassed taxes. You should think about that, because your country is becoming the exact same barbaric banana republic as Greece and South America. And why is that? Because:
Will Durant
You're just a tool of the rich that have successfully used the divide and conquer stradegy on the middle class. Soon there won't be any middle class, there will be poor serfs which cheerful oblivious ignorants like yourself cheering for the rich because they actually managed to get you to fall for the BS that the rich are job creators, like the ignorant masses that populate Texas. Anybody capable of synaptic activity knows jobs are created through demand, and all other theories are pull BS.
These 2 quotes describe your kind perfectly
Bertrand Russell 1872 1970
Yeah, too bad we didn't charge the Germans the same interest rate after the Marshall Plan. Those frugal bastards should have done the right thing and paid back the money they borrowed (good manners dictate that). But I am not complaining too badly...they did finally pay reparations to my Greek father-in-law...after all they sent him to Auschwitz at 13, forced him into slave labor, and killed off his family and his community. It isn't that much but it counts for something. Karma is a bitch.
what can we thank lord obozo for??? whats better? record gas prices or record poverty???...or was it record food prices?? maybe record debt??
Gas peaked under Bush Einstein.
truebro...Obama has very little to do with what is happening. It started with Ronny "braindead" Reagan and has been going on ever since. This is not something new but has been building for years and years. To blame 1 man who has been in office 3 years is just STUPID!
Record poverty ??? Ha ha ! Thank Bush and reagan for that !!! What they did yesterday has now a huge impact !
Yeah, keep voting republicans in, and soon you will be no better than a 3rd world country which for many things you now are.
The rest of the world has passed you by 10 years ago ! thanks bush for that !
How is that freeloader welfare check this month getting you by? Idiots like you are a dime a dozen.
Notice how the degenerates like poodlepoop breed like rabbits and then tell everyone else to feed, clothe, shelter, and provide for them and their 10 inbred offspring.
What is "fair" about giving lazy, shiftless, degenerate, inbred, godless freeloaders what those that have educated themselves and worked hard to produce?
People succeed because they have morals, dignity, have righteous behavior and have produced something of value. But the freeloader class of degenerates just keep multiplying until the number of idiots is more than the righteous can support? What is "FAIR" about that?
actually the highest unempoyment states are all liberal, cal. ill and new york ...and bankrupt too. By the way all the records are new, as in happened this year
someoneelse...You Drive a 13 year old car, not own a house and you call others stupid! Look in a mirror.
Some say this will never happen here. When working people have to scavenge for food they will do most anything. The politicians have us in a parallel course with Greece, Spain and Italy with spending and social programs that are driving the deficit to unsustainable levels. Things need change and not the change the POTUS boasted about in 2008....they never happened and will never.
So his stated options were government support, scavenge for food, or starve. Funny how "working" never entered his thought process.
there is a reason poddelmooch....that all liberal states are bankrupt, with super high unemployment. And people are leaving(see census)...and moveing to conservitive states
Hahaha!!! I called this type of response before it actually happened.
It is easier to riot instead of understand the failings of your government. Assigning blame to a boogie man ("The Rich", opposing political party, "Jews", etc.) is also a tactic that avoids dealing with the truth.
If you allow yourself to become dependent on government you are setting yourself up for failure. If you are promoting a government which furthers dependency on the government, you're the problem.
The problem with dependence on the gov't is they forget how to survive in the real world...the conservative world...the liberal world is a fantasy. The gov't sooner or later cannot support the entire population...just like Greece now.
The statement "Those who have committed suicide--who should have committed suicide a long time ago--are the politicians who knowingly decided to bring this country and its people to this state of affairs."
This is where were at! Wake up people!!! Our problem with the debt will not be fixed until there is a crisis. The ones in power do not have the balls to fix it. There more worried about getting reelected than fixing our problems! We are in deep S#%&.
You people want to all blame someone or some party but you voted for these fools. Look in a mirror for the blame. You believed their lies. You wanted their healthcare, bibles,oil,cooporate welfare. It is you in the mirror that is to blame, Mr STUPID! I used to believe them also but I got smart, sold my things and left.
@Eevie AMEN keep spreading the truth :)
Deregulation was a bankers dream come true. They then had enough money for sub prime borrowers so everyone even the poor black communities could own a home. The problem is it does not work this way Utopia is a myth. It took years to get here with regulation and now you want to put it back TOGETHER AGAIN ? LOL. GOOD LUCK ! All the kings men will never be able to put it back together again without regulating again. What do they think that our economies will regulate themselves using bankers to do the math ? .HELLO ! Big business communist fools.
In politics,the people who can least afford to pay are the exact ones who are offered up for sacrifice.Washington has gotten to the point, whereby to often ,legilation is passed by a pay for results way of doing things.The general masses no longer have a ligitimate voice in how our country is run.They are placated by big talk and litttle if any action on their behalf.The extream wealthy in this country don,t think they have any responsability to help make things better for all.t don,t!They forget all to easily that it was this country that provided them their oportunity to aquire their wealth.For that,they outsource everything they can for a dollar more profit while destrying the country they so call love!Corpoations have for to long gotten their way through monitarily legislating for what they want,and the washington insiders are only to happy to take their money and look the other way while the general public gets trampled again!Get smart people and MOVE somewhere else in the world.The thought that America is the only place to live is just not true.Let the greedy bastards wind up with nobody but themselves to service each other! I for one QUIT.I will most assuradly look elsewhere to retire,and have a much better retirement without the Government always in MY back pocket instead of looking to the more affluent who can afford to pay more but don.t !
Yeah right live in denial. You think it can be all run from Rome who is delusional now ehh ? Who has the second and who must bow down ? I mean if we did not have a second amendment you could say we were caught by surprise this is no surprise we have been waiting for some time for this to happen or we would not have a second amendment to protect the first. welcome to The NWO (no way out )