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Nikolas Giakoumidis/AP
A protester, not seen, throws a coffee at German consul Wolfgang Hoelscher-Obermaier, with the blue shirt, in Thessaloniki Thursday.
ATHENS - Public sector workers stormed a building where Greek and German officials were meeting in the northern city of Thessaloniki Thursday and pelted a German diplomat with water bottles in a protest over austerity measures.
Riot police used teargas and truncheons to break up a crowd of 250 city employees outside the building and formed a shield around German Consul Wolfgang Hoelscher-Obermaier as he entered.
Photographs also showed coffee being thrown over Hoelscher-Obermaier.
Protesters chanted "It's now or never!" and held up mock gravestones and banners proclaiming "Fight until the end!"
They said they were furious at comments by German envoy Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, who told journalists on Wednesday that Greece could do more to reform its bloated local government sector, the head of the workers' union said.
"Experts say that as far as local government is concerned the work carried out by 3,000 Greek employees can be done by 1,000 Germans," Fuchtel said. On Thursday, he said his remarks had been misinterpreted.
Anger and sometimes violent protests have been staged across Europe against unemployment and austerity measures. ITN's Emma Murphy reports.
Violence breaks out amid austerity protests in Europe
Fuchtel was appointed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel late last year to explore ways to boost grassroots cooperation between the two countries, and has been lampooned as overbearing in Greek media.
His comments struck a nerve in Greece at a time when its lenders, the European Union and International Monetary Fund, have demanded layoffs and steep spending cuts in exchange for a second $165 billion bailout.
More photos: Demonstrations across Europe over austerity measures
At the Thessaloniki city hall, a woman who answered the switchboard phone said: "No one can talk to you now. They have occupied the building."
A spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said: "No one was hurt and there was no material damage. The meeting continues as planned and that's what's important."
Garbage piles
Municipal employees have held several nationwide protests and strikes in recent weeks against the new wave of budget cuts, triggering severe disruptions in public transport and causing garbage to pile up across the capital.
The head of the POE-OTA union of municipal workers, Themis Balasopoulos, said Fuchtel's comments showed the government planned to push ahead with controversial public sector layoffs, about 2,000 of which are scheduled by the end of the year.
Read more coverage from NBC News about Europe's austerity troubles
Unions and some politicians oppose the layoffs, which are mainly expected to target local government workers.
"We are here to express our deep anger at his absurd comments," Balasopoulos told Reuters from the protest in Thessaloniki.
"We are not a democracy -- we are under German supervision. If we had decent politicians they would have put him on a plane last night and sent him back home," he said.
Many Greeks, worn down by years of austerity, blame Merkel for forcing the painful cuts in exchange for the bailouts.
In Germany, media have long characterized the Mediterranean state's 11 million people as lazy, corrupt and ungrateful.
Tens of thousands of Greeks protested against a visit by Merkel to Athens in October and some burned Nazi flags.
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Leave a Comment:
Apparently these Greek public sector workers have never heard the adage, "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
Funny way to ask someone for money. Must be a european thing.
Leftist lunacy coming to a neighborhood near you. Is Detroit burning?
Motor City? Didn't the O-Man save them from ruin a couple of years ago?
No sir he did not, I live here, it is still burning daily.
So that whole media show he made of helping the auto industry was a farce?
Well, can't say either side is wrong. It just so happens that the Greeks need the Germans (or, more specifically, Germany's money). The Germans need the Greeks like they needed the Berlin Wall.
If you don't want to pay them back, don't borrow the money. Simple enough, so why is it so rare among governments?
Worn down by years of austerity? Starting when? Next week? The Greeks have lived way beyond their means for decades. Fat pensions short working years before retirement...recipe for going broke. And, they don't pay their taxes.. Yes the answer is attack the Germans. They owe Greek for past misdeeds. Right.
Seriously.. if people get in trouble for spending more than they have, of course the same thing is going to happen with governments doing the same thing.
If it were my money I would not give a plug nickle to Greece. They have a corrupt government that the people put into office. They have run themselves into the ground. Let them dig themselves out. That's the way it is. You get what you deserve.
...The Germans need to pack up and leave so that the Greek union workers can proceed to kill each other and eat the bodies.....if this doesn't prove the uselessness of these union apes, nothing does....ban all public sector unions, NOW!.....
Obermaier thought he was speaking to disciplined Germans when he said the work of 3000 could be carried out by 1000. Poor guy never realized he was dealing with lazy government officials who'd rather go to tavernas and play tavli during work hours than actually work.
you geeks need Germany,thanks to them and quiet.
Stop blaming your problems on Germans.Be thankfull and pay up what you owe.
Hahaha the Germans pack up and leave?
But why? they are making a nice little profit from us at the moment. They borrow with low interest and lent us with high. Please do not fall victims to over simplification. Yes the Greek govs have been corrupt and corruption is still very much part the bureaucracy but there is more going on here than meets the eye.
In a mater of months a European country ascribing to the Western economic model has been reduced to something akin to Third World anarchy.
Regards,
All the hard working Greeks are in the US owning diners. The ones that stayed want someone else to do the work.