Greek MPs lash out at Germany over debt crisis

ei.sdraob

thought this might be interesting to some

rather ridiculous

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE61H1IZ20100218

ATHENS, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Greek opposition lawmakers said on Thursday that Germans should pay reparations for their World War Two occupation of Greece before criticising the country over its yawning fiscal deficits.

"How does Germany have the cheek to denounce us over our finances when it has still not paid compensation for Greece's war victims?" Margaritis Tzimas, of the main opposition New Democracy party, told parliament.

"There are still Greeks weeping for their lost brothers," the conservative lawmaker said during a debate on a bill to clean up the country's discredited statistical service.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has so far deflected appeals to promise aid to heavily indebted Greece, despite fears that failure to help Athens could threaten the euro.

Merkel's stance is backed by opinion polls showing that a vast majority of Germans oppose a bailout, and Germany's biggest selling daily Bild has lambasted Greece as a nation of lazy cheats who should be "thrown out of the euro on their ear".

But Greek lawmakers from three left-wing and conservative opposition parties said Germans had no right to claim the moral high ground.

Six deputies from the small Left Coalition party urged the government to press Berlin over the reparations issue and blamed German banks and politicians for Greece's crisis.

"By their statements, German politicians and German financial institutions play a leading role in a wretched game of profiteering at the expense of the Greek people," they said in a written question to the government.

Responding to criticism that Greece fiddled its figures to get into the euro in 2001, communist MP Nikos Papaconstantinou asserted that Germany was not above using such tricks itself.

"As if we didn't know that Germany inflated the value of its gold reserves to get into the euro," he said.

In 1960, Germany paid Greece about 115 million deutschemarks to compensate victims of Nazi persecution. However, some Greek pressure groups say this did not cover civilian victims of reprisals and a forced occupation loan.

Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou refrained from joining the attack on Germany.

"We all have our criticism as to how public opinion in one or the other country perceives the Greek problem," he said during the debate.

He added that New Democracy, which is allied with Merkel's Christian Democrats in the European People's Party, should have addressed any criticism to Germany while it was in government until last October.

Eliot Rosewater

The fact that the Greek deputies said that is more a reflection of them than Germany. Digging up the past in such a way is, ironically, only disrespecting all those who died.

I wouldn't bite that hand that feeds, either. From what I gather, the German Mark was a very strong currency and broad fiscal policy in the ECB is based on policy that was practiced by the Germans before the introduction of the single currency. On that basis I can understand why Germans are annoyed they have to bail out non-behaving states, and this kind of sentiment can only add fuel to the fire.

thebman

If you read my thread a few down its even more laughable TBH.

So they shouldn't denounce them because they have to pay them for occupation during WW2 but they would have listened to warnings from Germany that they were heading down a bad road economically years ago if warned.

Its classic really, need to accept reality that they have nobody to blame but themselves just like the Irish.

rightwingdub

thebman wrote: »

If you read my thread a few down its even more laughable TBH.

So they shouldn't denounce them because they have to pay them for occupation during WW2 but they would have listened to warnings from Germany that they were heading down a bad road economically years ago if warned.

Its classic really, need to accept reality that they have nobody to blame but themselves just like the Irish.

Time for the crooked Greeks to acknowledge that they themselves are solely responsible for the financial quagmire that they find themselves in, if I were a West German I would be raging at the pospect of having to bail out the tax evading Greek cheats, the West German people had to bail out their former commie neighbours from the East after 1990. That Greek politician who came out with those remarks is an absolute idiot.

Scofflaw

Reaching much...?

amused,
Scofflaw

Sand

The more I hear about the Greeks and their politics and their politicians, the more I am reminded of Ireland.

The market is assuming the stern, dour Germans will sigh and pick up the tab for their wastrel, fun loving neighbours but there is real anger in Germany - the prospect of a voter revolt there in the face of seemingly ungrateful or unchastened Greeks is very real. Its very interesting that despite the fanfare, there is still no clear, explicit German/EU guarantee for Greek debts...just a repetition of the common understanding of "solidarity".

If a bailout comes, it will probably come with what will amount to EU oversight, auditing (this will be very important - no one considers Greek figures to be credible...interesting from an Irish point of view given a similar "off balance sheet" accounting trick will be attempted with NAMA debt) and veto on the Greek budget for the next decade or more. An actual loss of sovereignty in a real (not imagined) way. I have heard some rather disturbing stats - apparently Greece has more public sector employees than the UK despite having only a fraction of the population? Surely this cant be true?

The one up is that no matter how bad we are, Greece makes us look good.

ei.sdraob

this story is getting crazier by the day

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/7309861/Greek-rescue-in-danger-as-deputy-prime-minister-attacks-Nazi-Germany.html

Theodoros Pangalos, deputy prime minister, said Germany had no right to reproach Greece for anything after it devastated the country under the Nazi occupation, which left 300,000 dead. "They took away the gold that was in the Bank of Greece, and they never gave it back. They shouldn't complain so much about stealing and not being very specific about economic dealings," he told the BBC.
Twisting the knife further, he said the current crop of EU leaders were of "very poor quality" and had botched this month's crisis summit in Brussels. "The people who are managing the fortunes of Europe were not up to the task," he said.
One banker said the situation was surreal. "How can they call the Germans incompetent Nazis and still expect a bail-out?"
Mr Panagalos has gone even further than premier George Papandreou, who said Greece had become a "guinea pig" for squabbling eurocracts playing power games.
Athenian rhetoric has confirmed fears in North Europe that the ruling PASOK party is still in denial about the crisis and will not deliver on promises. The insults have caused bitterness in Germany, increasing the possibility that Europe's paymaster will lose patience and leave Greece to its fate after all.

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It is a bit like a Monty Python sketch.

A guy is drowning. A passerby picks up a life belt ready to throw it. Drowning man starts screaming at the passerby "You b&*t^rd - it's all your fault" etc.