Greek-inspired demonstrations spread

Youths unhappy with globalization
Corfias said police suspect the attack is linked to events in Greece, and that it might have been carried out by youths unhappy with globalization and economic difficulties in France.

"The events in Greece are a pretext, in my opinion," he said. "The events in Greece are a trigger."

Elsewhere in Europe, more than 15 people occupied a Greek consulate in Berlin on Monday, hanging a banner out the window with the dead Greek teenager's name and the words, "Killed by the State." Youths clad in black appeared occasionally at a consulate balcony, exchanging chants with more than 50 protesters gathered on the street below.

About 100 people protested outside the Greek consulate in Frankfurt on Tuesday evening and minor violence was reported on the peripheries of the demonstration, including the breaking of a bank's window.

Violence still ongoing in Greece
Meanwhile, discontent in Greece showed no signs of abating on Thursday. Students pelted police stations with rocks and pledged to stay on the streets as protesters turned their rage over the police killing of a teenager into a wider rebellion against economic hardship.

Demonstrators also overturned cars and blocked streets in central Athens, but the country was largely spared the extreme violence that has characterized the five days since police shot and killed 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. In Athens, demonstrators vowed to dig in, planning more rallies to vent anger over economic hardship exacerbated by the global financial crisis.

"What started as an outburst of rage over Alexandros' killing is now becoming a more organized form of protest," said Petros Constantinou, an organizer with the Socialist Workers Party.

Protesters began handing out fliers listing their demands, which include having riot police pulled from the streets and the reversal of public spending cuts that have heightened insecurity over jobs.

The demonstrators have also begun adopting opposition demands for more financial relief for low-income Greeks. Greece's minimum wage is euro658 ($850) per month.

Trouble for prime minister
The broadening discontent spells trouble for conservative Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis' government, which has just only a one-seat majority in parliament. Even before the worst rioting in decades, his popularity was suffering amid financial scandals and unpopular economic and social reforms.

"We demand accountability, that this government resigns, and that this farce comes to an end," said 28-year-old Spyros Potamias, an architecture student at the Athens Polytechnic, where rioters have hunkered down and taken advantage of Greek law forbidding police from entering campuses.

Opposition parties are demanding Karamanlis resign and call early elections, arguing that his policies generated a social crisis that fueled riots and that police left Greece's cities defenseless.

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