Merkel faces 50,000-strong protest as she preaches austerity in Athens

German chancellor Angela Merkel encountered a hostile reception from protesters when she flew into Athens to pledge her country’s support for Greece as it grapples with its debt crisis.

Mrs Merkel praised the  Greek government for covering “much of the ground” required for recovery. “I hope and wish that Greece remains a member of the eurozone,” she said. “As partners, we are working hard to achieve that.”

But her visit triggered protests from 50,000 demonstrators, who thronged the streets of Athens. The rallies were mostly peaceful, but police briefly clashed with several dozen demonstrators and detained nearly 200 people throughout the day.

As Europe’s largest contributor to the bailout fund that has rescued Greece from bankruptcy, Germany is viewed by many Greeks as the primary enforcer of the austerity measures which Athens enacted in exchange for emergency aid.

Mrs Merkel, who stayed in Athens for five hours, said the coalition government led by prime minister Antonis Samaras still had to push through more key cost-cutting reforms.

“Much of the ground has been covered… there is daily progress,” she said. “This is an  effort that should be seen through, because otherwise it would make the circumstances even more dramatic later on.”

Although the German leader dampened expectations in Athens of a stronger message of support for Greece, Mr Samaras said the visit had ended “the country’s international isolation”.

Greece has depended on bailouts from Europe and the International Monetary Fund since 2010. To obtain the loans, it has implemented a series of deep budget cuts and tax hikes, while increasing retirement ages and facilitating private sector layoffs.

However, Athens must pass further austerity measures over the next two years to qualify for its next rescue loan payment – without which the government will run out of cash next month.

Enduring austerity is set to  extend Greece’s recession to a sixth year in 2013 and push the rate of unemployment up to nearly 25 per cent, according to government estimates.

Mrs Merkel’s visit to Athens was welcomed by the Greek government as a much-needed boost for the country’s future  in Europe, but protesters viewed it as a harbinger of further  austerity and hardship.

Dozens of youths broke away from the peaceful rally and threw rocks and flares at riot police, who responded with pepper spray and stun grenades, in clashes that were relatively minor.

More than 7,000 police officers had cordoned off parks and other sections of the city to keep demonstrators away from the German leader.

As a helicopter buzzed overhead, thousands of protesters, chanting “History is written by the disobedient”, gathered in front of the Greek parliament. One group of demonstrators burned a swastika and threw it on to a police barrier, while a group of special forces reservists appeared in uniform and chanted “Merkel out of Greece” in time to their march.

The visit followed a subtle shift in political rhetoric in  Germany towards the Greeks, with the chancellor repeating her desire to keep Greece in the eurozone and urging political allies to refrain from public criticism of the Athens government.