May Day turns violent in Europe

Thomas Grove

May Day protesters clashed with riot police in Germany, Turkey and Greece on Friday while thousands angry at the government's responses to the global financial crisis took to the streets in France and Spain.

Related photos / videos

Left-wing protestors lie in the street during May-Day demonstration in Berlin Enlarge photo

• Protesters behind police fences shout slogans during an outlawed May Day rally in central …More Enlarge photo
• Turkish riot police detain a protester during an outlawed May Day rally in central …More Enlarge photo
• Protesters clash with police during a May Day rally outside the parliament in Athens Enlarge photo
• German riot police arrive at a train station to escort a left-wing demonstration as they …More Enlarge photo

Rising unemployment across Europe and beyond has added intensity to May Day marches as last year's market crash and banking meltdown rolls into the real economy.

There were early morning clashes in Germany and protests in Istanbul swiftly turned violent. Greek police clashed with self-styled anarchists. Demonstrations in France and Spain appeared largely peaceful.

Turkish riot police fired water cannon and tear gas, firing shots and pepper spray to disperse masked protesters. Young men hurled stones and Molotov cocktails, smashing bank and shop windows in side streets.

An Istanbul police spokesman said 68 demonstrators were detained and 11 police wounded. Leftists and Kurdish separatists regularly clash with police at demonstrations in Turkey and the May Day protest last year also turned violent.

Turkey's government had declared May Day, traditionally marked by rallies by labour unions, a public holiday this year under pressure from the unions.

"Those who are here are unemployed and need work," said Mehmet Guleryuz, a film director. "These are students who cannot pay tuition fees. Things are bad everywhere but it hits Turkey hard."

Almost one in three young people in Turkey is without a job and the government fears social unrest and increased ethnic tension because of the downturn. Labour unions, traditionally weak, have become increasingly vocal.

GERMAN CLASHES, FRENCH MARCHES

In Berlin and Hamburg, scattered violence erupted in the early hours of the May Day holiday injuring more than 50 riot police, authorities said.

Some 200 demonstrators chanting anti-capitalism slogans threw bottles and stones at riot police in Berlin, police said, torching five cars. Police also clashed with the leftists ahead of a far right rally.

"There are people out in the streets protesting peacefully against the economic crisis and there is nothing wrong with that," said police spokesman Frank Miller. "But when people burn cars and trash containers and commit other criminal acts -- that has nothing to do with political protests."

French unions organised nearly 300 marches targeting President Nicolas Sarkozy's social policies and crisis management, with the opposition Socialists calling on members to join the protests for the first time since 2002.

French unions said turnout at regional protests was lower than on March 19 when up to 3 million attended the largest demonstrations in Sarkozy's election in 2007.

But in a sign of how far disillusion has spread, even staff in management positions joined the marches. The number of jobseekers under 25 increased 36 percent year-on-year in March.

"It is absolutely not in our tradition to protest on May 1, but given the economic context in France and crisis we decided to join in," said Carole Couvert, a leader of the CFE-CGC union for executives.

Spanish unions held some 70 demonstrations and threatened strikes if the Socialist government followed demands from business groups to reform labour laws.

Greek police said they fired tear gas in a clash with 300 people at Athens Polytechnic.

Elsewhere in Athens, nearly 6,000 protesters, mostly members of a communist trade union, gathered under the watchful eyes of 4,000 police. Many were angry at bank bailouts.

"We won't pay for their crisis," read banners from the country's main trade union GSEE.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaux, writing by Peter Apps; editing by Robert Woodward)