Athens, Greece Greek anti-government protests turned violent Wednesday, as protesters threw petrol bombs at the Ministry of Finance and police fired tear gas at protesters, police said.

Tens of thousands of protesters had vowed to form a human shield around the Greek Parliament to prevent lawmakers from debating new austerity measures Wednesday afternoon.

"This is a joke. It is all a joke," protester Christos Miliadakis, 35, said of the government plans.

"When will we be able to get out of this vicious circle? My wife lost her job. I had a 12% pay cut as a result of the first bailout. The new measures want to cut another 20% of jobs in the public sector," he said. "So if no one has money and we are just more in debt, who is going to drive the economy? We will live like slaves paying all our lives."

Architecture student Maria Iliadi, 23, said that for people like her, "the future in this country has been erased. There will be no big public projects and no one will be building for a long time. Some times finishing my degree seems totally pointless."

Between 25,000 and 27,000 demonstrators were on the streets of the capital by the middle of the day, police said. Two policemen and four civilians were mildly injured and 12 people were arrested, they said.

Prime Minister George Papandreou is due to address the nation on television later Wednesday, prompting speculation that he will announce a Cabinet reshuffle.

Labor unions are holding a 24-hour strike to protest the measures and will be marching to Parliament to join forces with the protesters.

The strike has brought public services to a grinding halt and kept most transport networks at a standstill, although flights have not been affected.

Rallies have also been scheduled to take place in other Greek cities.

On June 9, the Cabinet approved a tough five-year plan for 2011-2015 and introduced a bill in Parliament to put the measures into effect.

The government has said that the passage of these additional measures is essential to Greece's securing the fifth tranche of a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout package that Greece signed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou has said the country hopes to secure a second bailout deal this month.

The search for a second bailout comes after it became evident that Greece is extremely unlikely to raise capital from private markets in 2012 due to the prohibitively high interest rates it would face.

Papaconstantinou has also indicated that European Union members may support calls to get the private sector involved.

Despite the harsh austerity measures that the Greek government has imposed, it is failing to close its budget deficit as quickly as hoped. The country is in recession amid its fiscal restructuring program.

The finance minister has defended the five-year austerity plan, saying it is needed to keep Greece solvent. The new measures will include a number of additional taxes and job cuts in the public sector by a further 20%.

Protesters have been gathering outside Parliament for more than three weeks as part of an ongoing peaceful demonstration against austerity measures, with some camping in the square facing Parliament.

They call themselves "The Indignants," a grass-roots movement which takes its name from the Spanish campaign of "Los Indignados" who have been holding similar mobilizations against austerity across Spain.

In a statement the group has said it would keep going until the politicians and technocrats it blames for what is happening in Greece "go away."

The credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Greece's rating to just two notches above default, among the lowest in the world. The agency has said a default on some debt appears "increasingly likely."

Unemployment in Greece has skyrocketed to above 16 percent in May, a 40% rise since last year.

The European Commission has said Greece's economy was expected to shrink by 3.5% this year.

Papandreou has pledged to continue with reforms no matter what the political cost. He has said that the alternative, a default, "would be a catastrophe."The five-year austerity plan is expected to face a vote in Parliament in before the end of the month.

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