Greece’s fledgling government faces its first street challenge on Thursday, after Papademos’ coalition govt officially confirmed in parliament late Wednesday, as thousands of protesters hold an anti-austerity demonstration that has prompted a major security operation across Athens.
The demonstration marks the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising which helped topple a US-backed army dictatorship that had ruled the country since 1967.Originally directed against American ‘imperialism’, the annual protest which draws tens of thousands of participants has morphed into an outcry against two years of economic sacrifice imposed by Greece’s international creditors.
The new government of Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank deputy chief, was officially confirmed in parliament late on Wednesday. More than four-fifths of the 300-seat chamber on Wednesday gave a vote of confidence to the interim administration, which was set up to approve a crucial eurozone debt bailout and then hold early elections.