Greek protesters clash with police after Parliament approves crucial new austerity bill

Clashes at new mass protest in Greece against cuts

ATHENS, Greece — Protesters have clashed with police outside Greece’s Parliament after lawmakers passed a new austerity bill that will secure vital loan aid for near-bankrupt Greece.

Riot police in Athens fired tear gas to drive off stone-throwing youths.

Tens of thousands demonstrated Thursday, a day after extensive rioting marred a protest during a nationwide general strike against the new cutbacks. Three people died Wednesday after getting trapped in a burning bank torched by rioters.

Lawmakers approved the austerity bill in a 172-121 vote allowing Greece to tap into euro110 billion ($140 billion) in bailout loans from euro-zone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Greeks have been outraged by the measures.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Greece’s capital Thursday after lawmakers approved drastic austerity cuts needed to secure international rescue loans worth euro110 billion ($140 billion).

Demonstrators, banging drums and shouting anti-government slogans through bullhorns, unfurled a giant black banner outside parliament. More than 30,000 demonstrators filled downtown streets, chanting “They declared war. Now fight back.”

The protest followed violent street protests on Wednesday that left three people dead after a bank was firebombed.

In parliament, lawmakers voted 172-121 to approve the cuts — worth some euro30 billion through 2012 — that will slash pensions and civil servants’ pay and further hike consumer taxes.

Prime Minister George Papandreou expelled three Socialist deputies who dissented in the vote, reducing the party’s number of seats to 157 in the 300-member parliament.

“We have done what was necessary, not what was easy,” Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said after the vote. “Without these measures, we’d be thrown into the deepest recession this country has ever known.”

The bulk of Thursday’s protest — organized by the Greek Communist Party — quickly dispersed, leaving about 5,000 demonstrators outside parliament.

Protester Thodoris Mougiakos said he was angry the IMF would control Greek finances.

“It’s blackmail,” the 32-year-old engineer said. “There is money, but they spend it on things like armaments and businesses. The church has money too. If we had been drawing money from all these sources, we wouldn’t be in this situation now,”

But the protest remained peaceful, in contrast with Wednesday’s rioting that left three people dead, 59 injured and 25 people arrested. Police said 50 stores, banks and offices were damaged and seven vehicles damaged or burned.

Papaconstantinou said Greece would default on debt payments this month unless it received the bailout loans from the International Monetary Fund and 15 euro-zone countries that had remained divided for months on how to aid Athens.

“Today things are simple. Either we vote and implement the deal, or we condemn Greece to bankruptcy,” Papandreou told parliament before the vote.

“Some people want that, and are speculating (on it), and hope that it will happen,” he said, referring to speculative attacks that have been blamed for raising Greece’s borrowing costs to unsustainable levels. “We, I, will not allow that. We will not allow speculation against our country, and bankruptcy to happen.”

European governments are now scrambling to get parliamentary approval for the Greek loans. European leaders will meet on the issue in Brussels on Friday.

The rescue loans are aimed at containing the debt crisis and keeping Greece’s troubles from spreading to other countries with vulnerable state finances such as Portugal and Spain. The money will come from the International Monetary Fund and the 15 other governments whose countries use the euro.

Fears of Greek default have undermined the euro, and while the current package should keep Greece from immediate bankruptcy, its long-term prospects are unclear. The country’s growth prospects are weak, and the population’s willingness to accept cutbacks may wane, leading some economists to predict an eventual debt restructuring somewhere down the road.

Opposition parties lambasted the government for imposing measures that are too harsh for the population to bear.

“The dose of the medicine you are administering is in danger of killing the patient,” conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras said.

“You know that these measures have sparked a social explosion … The citizens of this country have to believe there is a way out. Because whoever cuts pensions of euro700 cannot convince anyone.”

Samaras also expelled a dissenting lawmaker, former Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, reducing his share of parliamentary seats to 90.

Associated Press writers Nicholas Paphitis and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed.