ATHENS, Greece -- An anti-austerity rally in Greece's capital turned violent Wednesday as a general strike halted flights, ferries and public transportation, and as thousands joined protest marches across the country.
Some protesters threw gasoline bombs and fired flares at riot police after the marches ended in Athens. Police responded with tear gas. The clashes broke out after peaceful marches involving about 12,000 people.
In a separate evening protest, more than 3,000 police, firefighters and coast guard members angry at impending pay cuts gathered outside Parliament. Several protesters tried to force their way past police guards and into the building, but they were repulsed.
The protests occurred as lawmakers debated another batch of measures that would impose more years of hardship on austerity-weary Greeks.
The new belt-tightening measures that will be imposed beyond the end of Greece's third bailout next year will include pension cuts and tax increases. The leftist-led coalition government agreed to the measures as part of a deal with the country's international creditors to release funds from its bailout.
Thousands of protesters were marching through central Athens toward Parliament in a series of demonstrations as part of the strike.
"No to the new looting of salaries and pensions," the civil-servants union ADEDY said.
Police unionists hung a giant banner off the side of Lycabettus Hill in the center of Athens, with a slogan in German and Greek reading, "How much is the life of a Greek policeman worth?"
Public hospitals were functioning with emergency staff only, and public transportation was disrupted, leaving gridlock on many of the capital's main roads. Intercity trains were not running, and there was no subway service between Athens' airport and the city. Courts were shut while lawyers and notaries backed away from official duties, and customs and local government offices were closed.
Air traffic controllers held a four-hour work stoppage in the middle of the day, leading to the rescheduling or cancellation of more than 150 flights. Ferries are to be tied up in port until late Friday after seamen began a four-day strike Tuesday.
Unless bailout funds are unlocked, Greece will once again struggle to meet a spike in debt repayments due this summer and will face another brush with bankruptcy.
In Parliament, lawmakers were debating the measures that include additional pension cuts in 2019 and higher income taxes in 2020. Lawmakers plan to hold a vote at midnight today.
On the streets of Athens, opinions on the strike diverged.
"It doesn't make a difference whether you strike or not. All the measures will pass anyway," said Apostolos Seitanidis as he walked in the city center.
But another Athenian, Panagiotis Adamopoulos, disagreed.
"Every strike is a holy thing," he said. "If we dismiss it, surely we'll end up getting 300-euro salaries and 200-euro pensions [about $330 and $220]."
Unions and the opposition have compared the new measures to those of a fourth bailout, but without the corresponding funding from international creditors. The government, which came to power in 2015 promising to repeal previous austerity measures, has vehemently rejected the accusation, emphasizing that it also plans to take other measures to relieve poverty.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke Tuesday morning with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country has been the single largest contributor to the Greek bailouts, and discussed the issue of Greece's debt, his office said Wednesday.
While the country's finances have improved under the bailouts, the belt-tightening has led to spiraling poverty. Unemployment, while down from highs above 27 percent, has hovered around 23 percent.
A Section on 05/18/2017