Greek police tear gas anti-austerity protesters

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ATHENS: Greek police sprayed tear gas on indignant protesters Tuesday as a general strike against the bankruptcy-threatened government set the stage for a defining vote in the Greek parliament.

But European Union slapdowns and a call by new IMF chief Christine Lagarde for lawmakers to drop opposition and save Greece's "destiny" fed rising belief on the streets of Athens that the austerity measures were inevitable.

Nearly 10,000 demonstrated outside the parliament where Prime Minister George Papandreou hopes on Wednesday to win lawmakers' backing for a 28.4-billion-euro ($40.8 billion) package of tax grabs, spending cuts and sell-offs demanded by creditors to avoid bankruptcy.

"We don't want your money Europe," Iamando, 36, told AFP on Syntagma Square. "Leave us alone -- please, please, please."

"Even the Turks never imposed this volume of taxes on us," added 70-year-old ex-sailor Panayotis Bakossis.

The launch of a 48-hour general strike Tuesday brought about a blanket power cut and transport came to a standstill in the Greek capital.

Police said 21 officers were hurt in the clashes but made only a dozen or so arrests despite firebombs setting property ablaze and protesters smashing up the marble steps of a luxury hotel facing the legislature, to use as missiles.

EU president Herman Van Rompuy called on Greece's 300-seat parliament -- where Prime Minister George Papandreou has a five-seat majority -- to take a decision "crucial for the Greek people, but also for the eurozone and the stability of the world economy."

Other Brussels officials sent out similar messages, before French finance minister Christine Lagarde was named the new head of the International Monetary Fund and immediately urged the Greek opposition "to join in national unity."

"The country's destiny is at stake," Lagarde said in a French television interview. "I think that at this moment they need to put aside their major political differences."

Unions meanwhile plunged Athens into a communications dark age for 80 minutes Tuesday, in protest at what may prove the most difficult measure to drive through in parliament -- the sale of part of the government's holding in Greece's national electricity company.

During the day police had flooded the area of the demonstrations with 4,000 officers, some in full anti-riot gear and arriving in battle-buses equipped with water cannon.

"They attacked us on June 15, but we fought back and we will do the same again," said Felipe, a 23-year-old student of Spanish origin in the 'indignants' camp that has taken over the central Athens square that houses the parliament for the last seven weeks.

"We're like the donkey -- the more you hit it, the more determined it gets," maintained Omiros (Homer), 29.

In a rare criticism of the government, the governor of the Bank of Greece, Giorgos Provopoulos, told an influential Greek daily that "piling more taxes on taxpayers has reached its limit."

But Greek stocks closed well up, and even the protesters made stoical noises as night fell. A 28-year-old woman, Maria, eyes streaming, bemoaned "a modern-day war, they are seizing our land... and they will sell everything."

Approval of the austerity measures by lawmakers, set to start voting on Wednesday early afternoon, would unblock 12 billion euros of emergency loans from last year's 110-billion-euro bailout.

That would then free eurozone finance ministers to start drawing up a second bailout for perhaps as much again as last year's 110-billion rescue, at talks Sunday in Brussels.

But even a former IMF board member, economist Miranda Xafa of Geneva-based investment managers IJ Partners, fears the plan is deeply flawed.

"In the last year, 250,000 people lost their jobs in the private sector -- and none in the public sector," she told AFP.

"Now the country is bankrupt so it has no choice," she said.