There were angry scenes at a protest called by disability groups against spending cuts when MAT riot police prevented demonstrators from entering parliament to submit their demands.
The demonstration was called in protest to cuts in social benefits and pensions for people with disabilities. Protesters say that they also want the government to protect the tax exemptions they enjoy and for the reopening of schools for people with disability.
Over 700 people, including dozens on wheelchairs, attended the protest, which began in Omonoia Square shortly after 11pm on Thursday and made its way to Syntagma Square, where they intended to enter parliament.
But MAT riot police had blocked the Vasilis Sofias St entrance to the legislature with two large coaches. A standoff ensued, during which most of the riot police and demonstrators retreated into the shade to escape from the sun.
Seizing an opportunity, some demonstrators, including a few on wheelchairs, pushed forward and broke through the security cordon erected by the riot police.
Unsure of how to react, the police eventually allowed representatives from the protest to enter the parliament building.
Two Paralympics gold medallists, Boccia athlete Grigoris Polychronidis and his teammate Nikos Pananos, were in the front line of the protest.
Asked whether he hoped the government would heed their requests, he said: “I’m not hoping anything. This is a demand.”
“When Europe sees what the government is up to they will ask them to keep their hands off the disabled,” he added.
Among groups attending the protest were some of the 150,000 people who require kidney dialysis.
Dr David Green, who requires dialysis every week, said people were angry, particularly after the Public Power Corporation (DEI) cut off electricity to a dialysis centre on Aegina island on Wednesday.
Staff at the Saronikos Gulf Kidney Dialysis Centre have not been paid for six months. The privately owned centre, which is equipped with 17 dialysis machines, also provides treatment to patients insured with public insurance funds.
But the largest public health fund, the Social Insurance Foundation (IKA), has not paid the centre for the treatment of its patients for months, leaving it unable to pay electricity bills.
After electricity was cut to the centre, its director contacted the media, who raised the issue with DEI management.
Power was restored to the centre later on the same day.
Source: Athens News
