ATHENS, Greece, May 6 (UPI) -- A day after three people were killed during violent unrest in Athens, Greek parliamentarians Thursday green-lighted the government's controversial austerity measures aimed at saving the country from default.
The bill passed with 172 out of 296 votes; 121 parliamentarians voted against the measures and three abstained, Deutsche Welle reports.
The Greek government tried to convince lawmakers that they have no choice but to green-light the fresh austerity package, which includes tax increases as well as salary freezes and pension cuts.
"Either we vote and implement the deal or we condemn Greece to bankruptcy," Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told lawmakers ahead of the vote.
The measures are necessary to unlock $145 billion in loans from the other eurozone members and the International Monetary Fund, an aid package agreed by eurozone countries last Sunday to protect the European economy.
Ordinary Greeks, however, responded angrily to the austerity measures, which are aimed at saving more than $38 billion over the next years.
An estimated 100,000 people amassed in Athens Wednesday to protest the measures. They tried to storm parliament and frequently clashed with police in riots that severely damaged banks, shops and hotels in the city center. A man and two women -- one of whom was pregnant -- died inside a bank that was firebombed by protesters.
Dimitris Zaganis, an employee of the burned-out Marfin Egnatia Bank, said he couldn't believe that three of his coworkers perished in the fire.
"But I hope that this tragedy transforms our country," he told German daily Bild.
On Thursday, parliamentarians had a minute of silence and bank workers took to the streets to show their outrage at the deaths -- the first during unrest in Greece since 1991, when five people were killed in protests against a government education bill.
President Karolos Papoulias said Greece is on the "brink of the abyss."
"We are all responsible so that it does not take the step into the void," he said in a statement.
Unions and far-left groups plan more protests against the measures in the coming days.
The Greek riots are bad news for tourism, one of Greece's few growth industries, with vacationers now mulling to cancel their summer holidays in the country because of the instability.
Greece needs more than $13 billion to cover debt coming due May 19. Athens has around $400 billion in overall debt, with $72 billion coming due in 2010.
Yet experts fear that the Greek crisis could spill over into Italy, Portugal and Spain, with the euro and the overall European economy suffering as a consequence.
