Greek man shoots himself 'over austerity measures'

An Orthodox priest holds a religious ceremony at the spot where a man committed suicide in Syntagma Square in Athens

Πηγή: The Telegraph
By Nick Squires

April 4 2012

A Greek man has shot himself dead in Athens' main square in the latest of a series of suicides and attempted suicides apparently caused by the harsh austerity measures being imposed across Europe.

The death of the 77-year-old man in the Greek capital's Syntagma Square came after similar incidents in Italy.

The pensioner shot himself with a handgun a few hundred yards from the Greek parliament, in apparent despair over his debts.

He reportedly shouted "so I won't leave debts for my children" before killing himself in the square, which has been the scene of numerous violent protests against the introduction of tough austerity measures in recent months.

The elderly man killed himself as hundreds of commuters streamed out of a nearby metro exit during Athens' morning rush hour.

Greece's fifth consecutive year of recession has been worsened by drastic cuts to public services, pensions and salaries and higher taxes, which were introduced in response to the demands of the International Monetary Fund and the European Union.

The man's death was a vivid illustration of the rise in the country's suicide rate.

In neighbouring Italy, a 78-year-old woman threw herself from the balcony of her third-floor apartment on Tuesday in apparent protest against the fact that her monthly pension had been cut to 600 euros.

The pensioner, from the town of Gela in Sicily, had recently had her pension cut from 800 euros a month and was reportedly struggling to make ends meet.

"The government is making us all poorer, apart from the wealthy, who they don't touch, in contrast with us workers and small businessmen who are struggling with heavy debts," said her son, Bruno Marsana.

Her death came a week after a 58-year-old businessman tried to commit suicide by setting himself alight while sitting in his car outside a tax office in Bologna in northern Italy.

He was apparently protesting against the rejection of his appeal against a claim for unpaid tax.

The fire left him in a critical state and he was rushed to hospital for treatment of extensive burns all over his body.

A day later a 27-year-old Moroccan immigrant set himself on fire in protest at not being paid for four months.

The construction worker doused himself in petrol outside the town hall of Verona, also in northern Italy. He too was treated in hospital for extreme burns.

His self-immolation was a "symptom of the utter exasperation felt by the weakest employees," said Vincenzo Scudiere from the CGIL trade union, Italy's largest.

The technocrat government of Mario Monti, the prime minister, is attempting to force through an ambitious package of spending cuts and reforms to balance the budget by 2013 and stem fears that Italy could go the way of Greece.

Unions and workers have objected to the package of pension reforms, tax increases and changes to employment contracts and have threatened to hold protests and strikes.

Editor's Note

This is the letter that he left behind:

"The Tsolakoglou collaborationist government annihilated every means for our survival. I can not find another way to react other than a decent end before I start looking in the garbage to survive and become a burden my child."

(Georgios Tsolakoglou was a Greek military officer who became the first Prime Minister of the Greek collaborationist government during the Axis Occupation in 1941-1942).