(Michael Probst/ Associated Press ) – German police officers escort an anti-capitalism protest march with some 20,000 people in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, May 19, 2012. Protesters peacefully filled the city center of continental Europe’s biggest financial hub in their protest against the dominance of banks and what they perceive to be untamed capitalism, Frankfurt police spokesman Ruediger Regis said. The protest group calling itself Blockupy has called for blocking the access to the European Central Bank, which is located in Frankfurt’s business district.
But Europe’s lingering debt crisis has given new fuel to some demonstrations.
Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, suffers none of the austerity measures now heavily affecting southern European nations such as Greece, Portugal and Spain. But Germany has championed the sometimes harsh spending cuts across Europe to get deficits under control.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has pushed through a European treaty enshrining fiscal discipline, but she is being criticized for suffocating growth through her insistence on austerity measures.
Her conservative government has rejected significant new stimulus measures, but Merkel is increasingly pressured — not least by newly elected French President Francois Hollande and President Barack Obama — to prop up investment to foster growth and avoid another recession in Europe.
“We are in solidarity with the people of Greece and other European countries who are already gravely suffering from (budget) cuts across the board which threaten their very existence,” Suess said.
“International resistance against the austerity imposed by troika and governments,” read one banner, followed by protesters waving Greek and Spanish flags. “Break the bank’s power,” read another banner.
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