On May 18, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), unveiled his institution’s new headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany before a group of about one hundred guests in what the Deutsche Welle described as a “low-key ceremony.”

That same day, for every one guest at the grand opening, there were over one hundred people in the Frankfurt streets protesting the austerity politics the ECB helps enforce throughout Europe — most severely in Greece.

Organized by Blockupy, an Occupy Wall Street–esque network of organizations that formed in Germany in 2012, the day of action included a blockade of the bank’s new skyscraper, a march of over ten thousand people, and a protest in front of a shopping mall where workers were on strike. It concluded with a pitched battle between blockaders and police, who tried to clear them out with water cannons; protesters set police cars and tire barricades on fire.