Greek protesters pelt coffee at minister

Greek anti-austerity protesters pelted coffee and water at Greek Deputy Education Minister in Athens on Friday, following a similar incident on Thursday in the northern city of Thessaloniki against the German Consul in the country. Theodoros Papatheodorou was targeted by a group of protesters, as he was laying a wreath at the National Technical University of Athens to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the November 17 student uprising against the military dictatorship which led to the restoration of democracy in Greece. Several Greek officials have been targets of similar attacks at the site and in other occasions over the past two years, as Greeks expressed their anger at the deep recession in part triggered by austerity measures introduced to counter a severe debt crisis. In the meantime, Greek police apprehended three persons believed to be involved in a similar attack against the German delegation attending a Greek-German forum in Thessaloniki on Thursday. German consul in Greece, Wolfgang Hoelsche-Obermaier, was hit by a cup of coffee hurled by local administration workers who were protesting planned mass layoffs as part of efforts to slash deficits and remarks of another German official who questioned their productivity. German Deputy Labor Minister Hans-Joachim Fuchtel commented earlier this week that according to certain surveys 1,000 German municipal workers can do the work of 3,000 of their Greek counterparts. German and Greek officials played down the "misinterpretation" of Fuchtel's statement, and stressed the close ties which connect the two countries and peoples. Greece has been pressed to implement harsh austerity and reform policies in exchange of vital bailout loans to avoid default since 2010 by European Union and the International Monetary Fund creditors. Some protesters have singled out the German government for their pain, as Berlin pushes for more belt-tightening to address the crisis.