The gathering follows protests in Cyprus outside a meeting of the ECB's decision-making Governing Council and marks dissatisfaction with the powerful institution, which has sought to distance itself from political wrangling in the euro zone.
"The main reason for the protest is that the ECB is in the troika and the troika is responsible for the austerity policies that have pushed so many into poverty," said Ulrich Wilken, one of the organizers of the 'Blockupy' protest which will take place near the ECB's 1.3-billion-euro headquarters.
The trio of inspectors, or troika, includes the European Commission and International Monetary Fund and monitors countries such as Greece and Cyprus that have received international bailouts.
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.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis last week criticised ECB policy towards Athens as 'asphyxiating', a criticism also made by the protest organizers.
"They are not democratically elected, yet they push governments into taking action all the time," said Wilken. "We saw this again in the manner in which they made the terms harsher for Greece to get finance after the election."
Earlier this year, the ECB stopped accepting Greek bonds as security in return for funding, when that country's new leftist government all but abandoned its reform-for-aid pledges.
"These are the policies that they carry out from their nice new offices in Frankfurt," Wilken said.
Organisers expect 3,000 people from abroad to join the protest, with a further 7,000 coming from Germany.
[buenosairesherald.com]
15/3/15
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EZB-Proteste von Blockupy: Frankfurt brennt...
ReplyDeleteHeute wird die neue EZB-Zentrale eingeweiht. Schon in der Nacht eskalieren die Proteste von Blockupy in Frankfurt. Steine fliegen, Polizeiautos brennen – die Ordnungshüter scheinen überfordert.
Gleich zum Beginn des Protesttages der kapitalismuskritischen Blockupy-Bewegung gegen die europäische Krisenpolitik ist es am Mittwoch in Frankfurt zu den befürchteten Ausschreitungen gekommen. In der Nähe der Alten Oper in der Innenstadt bewarfen Demonstranten Polizisten mit Steinen, mindestens ein Beamter wurde verletzt, wie eine Polizeisprecherin mitteilte. Es habe an mehreren Stellen Angriffe auf Polizisten gegeben................http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/konjunktur/geldpolitik/ezb-proteste-von-blockupy-frankfurt-brennt/11519840.html
18/3/15
Anti-capitalist protesters Wednesday set fire to police cars outside new European Central Bank offices in Frankfurt hours before its official opening.
ReplyDeleteRiot police were called to the scene where protesters also set up road blocks and burned tires.