Civil unrest is spreading in eastern Europe as the economic crisis hits the region harder than western states, with anti-government riots kicking off in Lithuania and Bulgaria in recent days and with Estonia and Hungary at risk.
On Friday (16 January), demonstrators attacked the Lithuanian parliament building in Vilnius with stones, smoke bombs, eggs and ice, breaking windows and calling on the government to resign.
Police dispersed the crowds - estimated to number some 7,000 according to authorities, with tear gas and rubber-tipped bullets - while Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius to hold called an emergency cabinet meeting. A total of 86 individuals were arrested.
Organised by the Lithuanian Trade Union Confederation, the protest denounced public sector wage cuts and increases in taxes aimed at aiding the country's battered economy.
The violent protests come two days after similar events shook Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, and follows on from riots protesting International Monetary Fund (IMF)-agreed austerity measures in Latvia earlier in the week.
In Sofia last Wednesday some 2,000 students, farmers and green activists also took up stones, snowballs and bottles against their parliament building and demanded the government resign. A total of 150 were arrested and around 30 injured.
Last week also saw saw the biggest protest Latvia has witnessed since the demonstrations that led to the country's independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. A crowd of young people broke away from around 10,000 peaceful protesters, overturning a police van and breaking windows at the finance ministry.
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Greek inspiration
But Latvian officials dismiss the idea that the protests are anything other than citizens frustrated at the collapse of their economies.
"It was just spontaneous," Inese Allika, Latvian diplomat, told the EUobserver. "Latvians are normally very quiet, and people obviously are seeing what is happening in other countries in the rest of Europe, such as Greece, and they thought 'Why are we so calm?'"
"There had been a huge economic boom in recent years, then all of a sudden, everything stops."
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