Three police cars have been set alight and two officers injured as authorities confronted anti-austerity protesters trying to blockade the inauguration ceremony for the European Central Bank's new headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.
Several thousand riot officers pursued what they said was a minority of violence-minded activists as the bulk of protesters conducted themselves peacefully ahead of a rally in the city's main square. Some blocked bridges across the Main River or streets.
Police said one officer was injured by stones thrown near the city's Alte Oper opera house, several private vehicles were burned overnight, and two police cars were set on fire at a police station in the city center. A third police vehicle smoldered a block from the ECB.
Some 10,000 people were expected for a rally in Frankfurt's main square, the Roemerberg. Organizers have chartered a special train bringing demonstrators from Berlin and are busing in others from around Germany and other European countries.
Frankfurt police say most demonstrators are expected to be peaceful, but that violence-prone elements could use the crowds as cover. Participants include trade unions and Germany's Left Party.
The ECB, along with the European Commission and International Monetary Fund, is part of the so-called 'troika' that monitors compliance with the conditions of bailout loans for Greece and other financially troubled countries in Europe.
Those conditions include spending cuts and reducing deficits, moves that are aimed at reducing debt but have also been blamed for high unemployment and slow growth.
Anti-austerity activists received a political boost when Greece's Syriza party won elections there in January by campaigning against the bailout deal and its conditions, which they say has led to a 'humanitarian crisis.'
Refusal of the conditions, however, has led to the withholding of further aid and the possibility of a chaotic debt default by the government.
ECB President Mario Draghi has called for more spending by governments that are in good financial shape, such as Germany - a call that has been mostly ignored by elected officials.
The ECB says it plans to be 'fully operational' during the protest, although some employees may work from home.
Yesterday police in Frankfurt put up barricades and barbed wire around the headquarters of the European Central Bank as they brace for demonstrations against government austerity and capitalism.
The Blockupy alliance said activists planned to blockade the new headquarters of the ECB ahead of today's ceremony inaugurating the building, and to disrupt what they term 'capitalist business as usual'.
Beyond that, some 10,000 people were expected for a rally in Frankfurt's main square, the Roemerberg. Organizers chartered a special train bringing demonstrators from Berlin and are busing in others from around Germany and other European countries.
Frankfurt police had said most demonstrators are expected to be peaceful, but admitted violence-prone elements could use the crowds as cover.
The ECB is also influential as a provider of finance to the banks of struggling countries and has in recent weeks sanctioned a drip-feed of extra emergency finance to Greece's lenders.
The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, last week criticised ECB policy towards Athens as 'asphyxiating', a criticism also made by the protest organisers.
“Our protest is against the ECB, as a member of the troika, that, despite the fact that it is not democratically elected, hinders the work of the Greek government. We want the austerity politics to end,” Ulrich Wilken, one of the organiser told Reuters.
The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, last week criticised ECB policy towards Athens as “asphyxiating“, a criticism also made by the protest organisers.
Some protesters said they were injured when police used pepper spray. At least 350 people were held by police, according to the German news site Deutsche Welle.
Police used water cannon to try to make a path through the mass of black-clad protesters to the entrance of the building. The new building was targeted because the ECB has come to symbolise spending cuts and market reforms of the kind being forced on Greece.
The German justice minister, Heiko Maas, said that “everyone has the right to criticise institutions like the ECB. But pure rioting goes beyond all limits in the battle for political opinion.”
