GREEK riot police tear gassed state schoolteachers protesting in Athens today, just days after the country’s public order minister accused officers of indiscriminately attacking teachers in similar circumstances.

Thousands of teachers took to the streets today to express their anger at the government’s process for hiring new staff in state schools. 

The government pledged to hire 15,000 new schoolteachers over the next three years. However, Greece’s trade unions are unhappy at the selection process, claiming it is unfairly weighted against some candidates.

Meanwhile Greece’s parliament scheduled a confidence vote for tomorrow following the collapse of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s governing coalition over a proposed deal to end a decades-old naming dispute with neighbouring Macedonia.

The right-wing Independent Greeks party quit the four-year partnership with Mr Tsipras’s Syriza yesterday.

The government now needs the backing of six lawmakers from opposition parties or independents to avoid a snap election.