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Protesters have clashed with riot police in the Greek capital, Athens, hours after a pensioner shot himself dead outside parliament.

The 77-year-old man killed himself in the city's busy Syntagma Square on Wednesday morning.

Greek media reported he had left a suicide note accusing the government of cutting his pension to nothing.

Flowers have been laid at the spot where he died and tributes have been paid online.
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I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don't find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance”

Extract from reputed suicide letter

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the square outside parliament on Wednesday evening, the scene of many large protests in recent months.

Violence erupted, with petrol bombs hurled at police, who fired tear gas in response.

Depression and suicides are reported to have increased in Greece as the country introduces tough austerity measures to deal with huge debts.
'Dignified end'

The man has not been officially identified but was named in Greek media as Dimitris Christoulas. He was said to be a retired chemist, with a wife and a daughter, who had sold his pharmacy in 1994.

He shot himself in the central square just before 09:00 (06:00 GMT),
n the alleged suicide note, found by police and reported by Athens News, he said: "The government has annihilated all traces for my survival, which was based on a very dignified pension that I alone paid for 35 years with no help from the state.

"And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting... I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don't find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance."

Dozens of people left handwritten messages and flowers at the spot where Mr Christoulas killed himself.

One of the notes, pinned to the tree, read "Enough is enough", while another said "Who will be the next victim?"

Later, as night fell, the demonstrations degenerated into clashes as activists threw rocks and petrol bombs at police, who responded with tear gas and flash grenades.

Prime Minister Lucas Papademos issued a statement calling the death "tragic".

"In these difficult hours for our society we must all - the state and the citizens - support the people among us who are desperate."

Government spokesman Pantelis Kapsis called the suicide a "human tragedy" but said "the exact circumstances" were unknown.

"And since my advanced age does not allow me a way of dynamically reacting... I see no other solution than this dignified end to my life, so I don't find myself fishing through garbage cans for my sustenance."

The island of Zakynthos, long known for its Venetian ruins and turquoise waters, lately has new fame in Greece — as “the island of the blind.”
According to Dow Jones, the Greek health ministry is investigating on Zakynthos after local officials flagged records showing what they said is an implausibly high number of disability claims for blindness.

About 1.8% of the island΄s population of 39,000 claimed the benefit last year, according to the health ministry. That is around nine times the prevalence of blindness estimated for many European countries in a 2004 study published in a World Health Organization journal.

Among those who put in for the blindness benefit on Zakynthos, a local official said, were a taxi driver and a bird hunter.

Zakynthos has become a symbol for the widespread corruption that has played a part in the nation΄s financial downfall. “It appears the ΄blind΄ of Zakynthos saw only the color of money,” said an article in the Greek newspaper Ethnos.

But the island is hardly alone, according to health ministry officials, who say fraudulent disability claims are a problem across the nation, costing the government hundreds of millions of euros a year.

(...)

In an attempt to root out fraud, the Greek health ministry recently required disability claimants nationwide to register in a centralized database, appearing in person or sending a representative. The registration resulted in 36,000 fewer disability claims than in 2011, the health ministry said.

The ministry alleges these dropped claims were fraudulent, in many cases reflecting multiple claims for the same disability or payments in the name of dead beneficiaries. It also alleges that some doctors accepted money for false diagnoses and some local politicians signed off on the benefits to win support, and said it is giving public prosecutors information about areas where it suspects a high level of fraud. Only 190 of the nearly 700 people it says had been collecting the blindness benefit on Zakynthos participated in the registration, the ministry said.

(...)

MEZZANINE wrote:@ LA

When people think the government has taken / is taking to much and they cant do anything about it, black marketeering, tax evasion and fraud are a natural response in any nation.

The more the government tries to screw the people, the more people will say screw the government.

Lithium wrote:This is EU , lol a scam to European countries, now its Spain turn to bow. Eu is the Berlin-Paris axis the rest should be modern slave countries. Any country that can self sustain will be thrown in deep debits until some puppets will be place in thrown.

MEZZANINE wrote:@ LA

When people think the government has taken / is taking to much and they cant do anything about it, black marketeering, tax evasion and fraud are a natural response in any nation.

The more the government tries to screw the people, the more people will say screw the government.