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Disgruntled Greek pensioners queued in front of bank branches here and other cities across the country to withdraw up to 120 euros (133 U.S. dollars) from their pensions on Wednesday, as Greece teetered on the brink of default amidst dramatic developments this week.
Since Tuesday at midnight, Greece has been in arrears status, a step from bankruptcy, with the International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile, Greek banks have been on an imposed bank holiday since Monday morning, and capital controls of 60 euros daily withdrawals per bank account have been introduced to prevent the collapse of the banking system.
The Greek government decided on Tuesday to reopen a certain number of bank branches so that pensioners without bank cards could receive a portion of their pensions until the end of the week.
Chaotic scenes took place as thousands of elderly people who found themselves completely cut off from their money for days, were pushing and squeezing in the doors of banks to get priority numbers.
"My legs hurt after threes hours waiting in line, just to take 120 euros. They should feel ashamed," one of the pensioners who was in the queue from 6:00 a.m. local time (0300 GMT) in an Athens district, told Xinhua.
"Do I have to feel lucky that I got 120 euros from my pension? I have to pay rent, doctors, go to the grocery, and support my unemployed daughter and my grandchildren," another frustrated pensioner shouted while exiting another national bank branch at Stadiou street in the center of Athens.
Bank employees, helped by police officers, were trying to keep order, and in some cases offered pensioners bottles of water and chairs.
"Alexis Tsipras is responsible for this, how are we going to pay for our everyday needs? What about my medicines? After six years of recession, they cut our pensions by half, and now they don't let us take our money?" an exhausted 72-year-old woman said to Xinhua about the Greek prime minister.
But among the angry and impatient crowd, there were voices that called for calmness and no panic and people who argued that the difficulties were perhaps temporary and soon Greece would strike a better debt agreement with it's lenders.
For the next two days, and ahead of the Greek referendum planned for July 5 on the bailout proposals tabled by creditors, more than 1,000 bank branches will be open to serve pensioners. (1 euro = 1.11 U.S. dollars) Enditem
