Dozens of pro-union demonstrators disrupted shopping on Athens' busiest high street on Sunday to protest an exceptional one-day opening aimed at helping businesses recover after recent violent youth protests. About 100 protestors fanned out as hundreds of Athenians descended on central Ermou Street.
The demonstrators blocked the entrance to several retail chains and traded barbs with shoppers, prompting some stores to shut down to avoid trouble. "Never work...on Sunday, multinationals can go to hell," protesters chanted, urging shoppers to "put down your shopping and pick up batons."
"I should have the freedom to decide when I want to shop," retorted one enraged woman at a store entrance. "If this is not fascism, then what is?"
City officials on Friday angered unions when they decided to allow shops in central Athens to remain open on Sunday, normally a holiday in Greece. The decision was taken to help the sector recover from a recent three-week wave of protests and vandalism that followed the fatal police shooting of a teenage boy on December 6.
Hundreds of shops in Athens and other main cities were vandalised and dozens looted at the height of the violence, during which the city centre of the capital was often blocked off. The trouble nearly killed off Christmas shopping, with the local chamber of
commerce saying the unrest in Athens alone caused at least 50 million euros (70 million dollars) in material damage.
"I came to buy presents and help the stores burnt down in the recent unrest, but one unionist told me they'll happily burn them down again, so I'm leaving and I won't come back," said Yianna Papadopoulou, an elderly grandmother who called the situation "a real shame".