Sunday's clashes erupted after more than 100,000 protesters marched to the parliament to rally against the drastic cuts, which will eliminate one in five civil-service jobs and slash the minimum wage more than a fifth.
At least 45 businesses were damaged by fire, including historic buildings, movie theaters, and banks, in the worst riot damage in Athens in years. Fifty police officers were injured and at least 55 protesters were hospitalized. Forty-five suspected rioters were arrested and an additional 40 detained.
Since May 2010, Greece has survived on a $145 billion bailout from its European partners and the IMF. When that proved insufficient, the new rescue package was approved. The deal, which has not yet been made final, will be combined with a massive bond swap to write off half the country's privately held debt.
But for both deals to materialize, Greece had to convince its deeply skeptical creditors that it has the will to implement spending cuts and a public-sector overhaul to end years of fiscal profligacy and tame budget deficits.
As protests raged Sunday, demonstrators set bonfires in front of parliament, and dozens of riot police formed lines to keep them from making a run on the building. Security forces fired tear gas volleys at rioters, who attacked them with firebombs and chunks of marble broken off the fronts of luxury hotels, banks, and department stores.
"I've had it! I can't take it anymore. There's no point in living in this country anymore," said a distraught shop owner walking through his smashed and looted optician's store.
The government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos - an unlikely coalition of the majority Socialists and their main foes, New Democracy - had been expected to carry the austerity vote. Combined, the coalition parties control 236 of parliament's 300 seats.
Still, they faced strong dissent: Besides the 37 lawmakers who voted against the bill or abstained, six other members of the coalition voted against sections of the proposed measures. After the vote, the coalition government announced the 43 lawmakers had been expelled.
Greece's eurozone partners, meanwhile, kept up the pressure for overhaul.
Asked whether Greece has a long-term future in the eurozone, German Vice Chancellor Philip Roesler said, "That is now in the hands of the Greeks alone."
"It is not enough just to give financial aid - they must tackle the second cause of the crisis, the lack of economic competitiveness," he told ARD television.
