ATHENS — Confrontations between the police and protesters reached a violent climax here on Wednesday as armored riot officers beat back demonstrators and fired volleys of tear gas into the crowds who had gathered outside Parliament. Inside, lawmakers approved a package of austerity measures aimed at helping Greece avoid a default.
On the second day of a two-day general strike called by unions, rogue protesters also attacked the Finance Ministry on Syntagma Square across from Parliament and set fire to a post office in the ground floor of the building. The King George Palace, a luxury hotel that faces the square, was evacuated in the afternoon.
A police spokeswoman said that 31 police officers were injured and that 30 people had been detained, leading to 11 arrests. Local news media reported that dozens of protesters were hospitalized, and video clips showed the police striking people with their batons.
Amnesty International released a statement on Wednesday condemning the “repeated use of excessive force by police in recent demonstrations, including the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of tear gas and other chemicals against largely peaceful protesters.”
The day began noisily but peacefully. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in front of Parliament, shouting “thieves” and “traitors” at the politicians deliberating the unpopular measures. But as the day went on, some young people, many masked and clad in black, began hurling rocks, broken furniture and firebombs at police officers, many of whom scooped up the rocks and hurled them back.
Although dramatic, the street violence was a sideshow from the broader drama unfolding in Greece today: the slow suffocation of the middle class. That brought the vast majority of the protesters — old and young — out into the streets this week.
“I’m here because I don’t have hope,” said Eliseos Fitros, 49, who said he had worked in the tourism trade and was not unemployed. “I have two kids in university. What is their future? I’m worried that in two or three months the economy will collapse.”
Unemployment has soared above 16 percent here — and more than 30 percent for those under 29.
“I’m new to these kinds of protests,” said Theodore Katris, a student in European culture, as he stood downtown with a surgical mask on his chin to protect him from the tear gas. But he said he felt compelled to demonstrate. “I’m 22 years old. I have nothing, I have no future,” he said.
“My grandparents had to move to America to survive, and I think that because of these policies, my generation will have to, too,” Mr. Katris said.
In another sign of the fury at lawmakers, protesters hurled bottles and a chair at Thomas Robopoulos, a Socialist member of Parliament who had a police escort. After first saying he would oppose the austerity measures, Mr. Robopoulos ultimately voted in favor on Wednesday.
Late into the evening, tear gas and black smoke wafted over the center of this dense city, its off-white walls plastered with graffiti. Earlier, the police and protesters had skirmished on shopping streets. Some demonstrators were forced to retreat into a nearby Metro station, where volunteer doctors also treated those who had been overcome by tear gas or been beaten by the police.
But in the strange patchwork of Athens, just blocks from the scuffles, people sat calmly in cafes and tourists made their way up to the Acropolis — if not to the airport, because of a work stoppage by air traffic controllers.
Amid the chaotic street scuffles, immigrants from South Asia pushed carts full of bottled water and sold swimming goggles and liquid Maalox, which protesters smeared around their eyes to counter the sting of tear gas.
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