Greek President (And Nazi Resistance Fighter) Lashes Out At "German Boot" For Pushing Country To The Brink
The following extract from a Bloomberg article suggests that the German mission of getting Greece to file for bankruptcy on its own, thus removing the perception that Europe has given up on the first (of many) terminal patient, own has almost succeeded. "Greek President Karolos Papoulias slammed Germany’s finance minister for recent comments about his country as stalled bailout talks stoked tensions between Greece and the northern European countries funding its rescue. “I don’t accept insults to my country by Mr. Schaeuble,” Papoulias, who fought in the resistance against the Nazis during World War II, said in a speech today. “I don’t accept it as a Greek. Who is Mr. Schaeuble to ridicule Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns? We always had the pride to defend not just our own freedom, not just our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe."
Papoulias’s comments came as Wolfgang Schaeuble and other European officials pushed Greece to gouge more cuts out of its budget to qualify for a new bailout that would stave off an economic collapse. Schaeuble today blamed Greece’s New Democracy party, the second largest, for holding up agreement on a new rescue package and his deputy, Steffen Kampeter, compared Greece to a “bottomless pit.”
Greek politicians are expressing their frustration after European finance ministers last week rejected a Greek austerity package worth 7 percent of gross domestic product. That prompted New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras to complain that a gun was being held to the country’s head. George Karatzaferis, head of Laos, the third party in the governing coalition, said the country “could do without the German boot.”
Since we assume that Mr. Papoulias has had the chance to travel around Europe and to actually familiarize himself with both Netherlands and Finland, not to mention Germany whom he fought in WW2, it is safe to say his was a rhetorical question. To which a rhetorical answer may be due: "they are the ones who have been providing funding to Greece for the past two years." Granted that funding may not have gotten where it was supposed to but that is only due to two things: i) corruption and ii) stupidity on behalf of the local politicians - the same ones tasked with looking after the interests of their own people. Because nobody else will.
Seen in this light, Mr. Papoulias sacrifice to stop his €300k a year salary is a little naive and, well, too little too late.
Alas, Greece should have down what we said back in early 2010 - default, and let the chips fall where they may. In that way it would have been like Iceland, and already on the way to recovery. Instead it chose the cowardly way out, and to bend over backwards to the global banker consortium. Now it can reap what it sow, with or without meaningless populist speeches.
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Wake me up when merkel hangs from a lamp post in athens.
They're the ones who invented the "Molotov cocktail" and taught the Soviet army how to fight a war, so they could finally beat the Wehrmacht.
I wouldn't go too far down that road....
You Don't Argue With Your Creditor, That is Unless You Have NO Plans to Ever pay Him Back ...
I applaud Mr Papoulias for raising the Greek national spirit and shaming not only the creditors but his fellow politicians.
Maybe his salary sacrifice as an example becomes a demand from the populace for the rest of the politicians to follow suit and cut their MASSIVE salairies and allowances (52 free flights per yr, 1K telephone bills per month, 1K housing allowance, pension for life after 8 years as MP, FAT salaries at mininmum tax rate, allowances for 4 personal staff, 1.5 K Car allowance + Car hire allowance.... the list goes on).
The Greek civilian population paid heavily for WWII with famine and starvation to the point of death for many in the cities during the winter 1940-41.
Their president just made sticking to the terms of the bailout a matter of national pride and while some might interpret it as a case for possible civil war for the minority of the populace that do not support it, it is no longer a party political debate.
Papoulias also just put the Germans on notice that should they seek to backtrack or treat Greece like an occupied territory, Greece will default, as a matter of national pride.
Backtracking is a privelege reserved only for Greeks, they have centuries of history in mastering its use.
To keep within the monetary union guidelines, the government of Greece had MISREPORTED the country's official economic statistics.
At the beginning of 2010, it was DISCOVERED that Greece had paid Goldman Sachs and other banks hundreds of millions of dollars in fees since 2001, for ARRANGING transactions that HID the actual level of borrowing.
The purpose of these deals made by several successive Greek governments, was to enable them to continue spending, while HIDING THE ACTUAL DEFICIT FROM THE EU.
http://en.wikipedi...rnment_debt_crisis
What had started as a giant lie, will finally lead to a booting...!!
OMG REALLY!!!!!??????! !!!
Where have you been last few years? THE europeans knew about it while it was happening. They just thought "its only tiny, little Greece up to their usual tricks..... " at the time.
The head of Greek Statistics back in the 1990s was nicknamed "the magician" coz he could make things disappear. oh come on.
Germany and France use statistics to make things disappear. Italy makes things disappear.
US makes things disapper in stats, read the posts on ZH!!!!!
This is Europe. This is a democracy. the EU now has an asusrance from the 2 leading parties that they will do their bit and a vote from parliament (the far right left the coalition, representing only 6% of the voting members) son only two assurances needed, down from 3 LOL
Both Greece and the EU/Member states have every incentive to close a PARTIAL deal by 15/20/30 Feb, etc the ONLY thing that has to happen is a payoff of 14.5bn debt on 20 March.
And until then the aim is to get as much of a "write down" on private banks, call it a selective default, dont trigger CDS on as much as possible, basically , have a default without a default and leave all other options as open as much as possible.
No need to put the 300 in the face of the onslaught....... as yet.
You're ridiculous.
Tell your friends, the Greek, that next time they should hire the Deutsche Bank instead of the Squid and all will be fine.
Uh? Next time? I don't think so! End of discussion!
Good night, Bon soir, Gutnacht, Buenas noches e addio Grecia.
this type of demagoguery by Greece is inexcusable. They cause a Godwin's Law invocation nearly every time they speak on this. THEY borrowed the money. This is NOT ICELAND.
Dangerous Oversimplifications.
Who is this "THEY" you are talking about.
A Government can borrow money in the name of the people... then use the money for its own purposes and maybe do some TOKEN gifts to the poor people, to make it look like people received something (olympic games, a new bridge, etc...)
Who ever thought that we left medieval feudal state... NOTHING has changed...
> US makes things disapper in stats, read the posts on ZH!!!!!
They're getting better and better at this – they even have laws that can be used to make their own citizens disappear. But even they can't disappear their own debts.
"The europeans knew about it while it was happening." No. We did not.
Yes, there were hints, yes, the Greek Statistics were somewhat fudged, but nobody expected that kind of megatricks that Goldman Sachs pulled.
European Criticism of the Greek Government is about the size of the hidden debt & lies. For that, a True Master of Lies had to help.
All hot air. These Socialisti will take their reaming and like it. 1941? If the Greeks didn't want German troops in their country, they probably should not have let Brit Empire troops in FIRST. Metaxes needed no help from warmonger Churchill. Greeks had already defeated the eyeties and, when Mussolini begged Hitler for help, H said "fuck off, Musso...got good relations with Greece". So warmonger Churchill hit Metaxes ("died of a heart attack"), set up puppet govt, and occupied Greece. Then Churchill + Stalin proceeded to overthrow pro-German regime in Yugoslavia, replacing it with a cabal of Serb generals, and only then did the Germans strike southward. True history, not the Jewish version.
Not quite, the Greeks didnt want Germans in their territory. Brits werent there first. Italians requested pass through, Greeks refused, Italians, invaded, Greeks kicked them out, Germans had to reinforce, Brits had to help. Germans kicked Brits out and made the Greeks pay for collaboration and delaying.diverting their efforts to get to the Romanian oilfields.
Liar. Brits killed off pro-German Metaxes when he refused Empire troops. Replaced him with puppet govt that "invited" Brits in. Then came the Belgrade coup. Only then, twice provoked, did the Germans strike.
LOL your handle says it all, mate.
End of discussion.
No, you are still a liar.
[cough]
I've withdrawn my comment.
Uh, "bend over backwards"?
Improvised incendiary devices have been around long before there were "Finns".
But none have the "ring" of Molotov Cocktail.
The other Soviet Foreign Ministerial-named device, the Molotov Breadbasket, could now be named the "Obama Kinetic Peace Delivery".....
"Who are the Finns"
Well, the Finns are certainly the more prudent lenders who dare ask for collateral.
Dutch and German lenders seem to be *OK* with a simple LOI.
Haha, what a goofball this Greek guy. Soon he'll be crying to his people that he couldn't get them the money.
Broken bones..
Hakkapeliitta (Finnish pl. hakkapeliitat) is a historiographical term used for a Finnish light cavalryman in the service of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden during the Thirty Years' War (1618 to 1648). Hakkapeliitta is a 19th century Finnish modification of a contemporary name given by foreigners in the Holy Roman Empire and variously spelled as Hackapelit, Hackapelite, Hackapell, Haccapelit, or Haccapelite. These terms were based on a Finnish war cry hakkaa päälle (English: Hit them on the head; Swedish: hacka på), commonly translated as "Cut them down!"
The hakkapeliitta-style cavalry was first used during the Polish-Swedish Wars of the late 16th century. In the early 17th century the cavalry led by the Field Marshal Jacob De la Gardie participated in campaigns against Poland and Russia. The Hakkapeliitta cavalry men led by Field Marshal Gustaf Horn were vital to the Swedish victories in Germany during the Thirty Years' War.
...from Wikipedia.
....of which I am a descendent.
I need a horse....
+1
Greetings from the Gardekavallerie
Uh, educate me again why it's Merkel's fault the Greeks paid themselves far beyond what they could realistically afford?
I suppose it's Merkel's fault they haven't gone bankrupt yet. But then, if they had, Merkel would probably be the scapegoat in that case too.
EXACTLY!!
Let's see how they do it by themselves.
5000 years they lived from the fishing industry and goat herding. Let's see how they'll become a economic power with that.
YEAH I Agree, Those dang Germans should go back to Goat Herding...
More Americans should herd goats and other livestock, too bad HOAs prevent them from even planting vegetables in most cases...
you rock!!
And cue...
"So many theories, so many prophecies,
What we do need is a change of ideas.
When we are scared we can hide in our reveries but
What we need is a change of ideas.
Change of ideas, change of ideas,
What we need now is a change of ideas."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Fb8AIWw8I
They represent, that's all. How did the West ever become an economic power anyhow? Chance? Grace? Greed? Respect for your elders...
Freedom, liberty, ... and guns. Lots of guns.
Deep love and gameness makes a winner.
Comparative variety of grains and ease of their domestication.
The Mediterranean provided a natural system of transport.
Basically...Geography.
huh? nonsense.
Oh, there you are. You're late, but nevermind...
Read this book sometime, "Why the West Rules--for Now" by Ian Morris.
Bronze and iron.
that stuff is everywhere
and yoghurt with philosophy on the bottom. When you stir it up, it tastes really good.
SD Why speak in a contemptuous way about people making a living off the land? Better than being a banker - IMO. Much better.
Edit - hopefully their not using gill nets.
I believe that the way things are going, living off the land will be the new hot career. Look at this refugee in Montana.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-going-grid-montana-style
Dear Key,
It takes (at least) TWO to have a loan go bad - the borrower AND the lender...
Thing is, the majority of the $ Greece borrowed since 2000 went to purchase BMVaayyy's, MB's and other Deutsche produkts.
I know, they still borrowed the $ you claim, but that doesn't mean Germany should underwrite generations of Greek debt.
Bring back the D-Mark. Problems solved. It's that easy...
I don't disagree. The sooner they file for bankruptcy, the better. Yes, it'll be a hell of a headache, but the longer those darn Keynesians force alcohol down our necks, the worse it'll eventually get.
And the drachma -- unless you were seeing Greece move to the DM, also. They need their drachma back. A shame it was dropped -- the drachma goes back to 1832 ... and ancient [classical] Greece, also.
Its not, but then again there's a saying that goes, "if you give soemone enough rope, they'll hang themselves".
Also you can't give a fat kid a unlimited supply of donuts and nto expect him to get diabetes.
Great, enough rope and donuts for everyone then. Popcorn for me, thanks.
Ah, its just the village idiot again.
shouldn't it be a lamp post in Berlin
You know they will do that eventually, hang her and burn her in effigy. It's all over, and Portugal hasn't realized that they are next.
READ SOME HISTORY YOU SAD PHUCK
Homage to the Greek resistance
Everyone can recall the sentiments of admiration which the heroic defense of Greece, first against the Italians and then against the German invader, aroused throughout the civilised world.
In a speech made at the Reichstag in 1941, Hitler expressed his admiration for the Greek resistance,h[›] saying of the campaign: "Historical justice obliges me to state that of the enemies who took up positions against us, the Greek soldier particularly fought with the highest courage. He capitulated only when further resistance had become impossible and useless." The Führer also ordered the release and repatriation of all Greek prisoners of war, as soon as they had been disarmed, "because of their gallant bearing."[133] According to Hitler's Chief of Staff, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the Führer "wanted to give the Greeks an honorable settlement in recognition of their brave struggle, and of their blamelessness for this war: after all the Italians had started it."i[›] Inspired by the Greek resistance during the Italian and German invasions, Churchill said, "Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks".[134] In response to a letter from George VI dated 3 December 1940, American President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated that "all free peoples are deeply impressed by the courage and steadfastness of the Greek nation",k[›] and in a letter to the Greek ambassador dated 29 October 1942, he wrote that "Greece has set the example which every one of us must follow until the despoilers of freedom everywhere have been brought to their just doom
Who cares about your fucking history? Pay your bills, arsehole, and move on...!
If it wasn't for Greece you would be eating camel meat and verb_Muslims_do noun_Muslims_do
This is not going to end well.
Let's just hope it ends! This Greek collapse was old about a year ago. Enough already! Let it burn...
Nothing new about this at all - Europe has much can-kicking experience. Just finished reading "When Money Dies" - the tale of hyperinflation in Weimar Germany after WWI. There were endless numbers of conferences and meetings between the allies after wars end to deal with reparations and Germany's economic problems. Author Adam Fergusson comes up with a phrase that fits the current Greek situation to a T:
"Throughout the whole of March (1922) the fall went on; and only in April did a rally come, when the European financial community, whose willingness to grasp at straws was still amazingly unaffected by frequency of disappointment, decided that the international conference billed to begin in Genoa that month might bring salvation."
Sounds like Spring-2010 with Greek bailout one, or October 2011 with bailout two- and this was 90 years ago!
Practice makes perfect.
With new rubberized kickable can technology one wonders if the "problem" could in fact be simply postponed well into the next century...
They're working on a moon-shot!! {ssshhhhhh...... } but don't tell anyone.
I hear Schaeuble eats human babies!
Belgian babies. I saw it with my very eyes!
Yeah... There the best.... With onion rings.... Hhhmmmmmm...
I heard some greek built a time-machine and went back to 1990, attempting to assassinate schaeuble...
Schaubles body got damaged, but his mind got more evil with this experience...
Thats what you call a time paradoxon!
No, no, I am hearing that this is why the jackbooted Troika thugs are being sent into Greece. The cover story is that they will monitor the implementation of austerity measures, but their real task will be that of fanning out across Athens's maternity wards to find the perfect baby for Schaeuble to eat each day.
I am hearing this....
W. Strangelove: " Nah, they're too salty, I'm on diet " ...
just need a little more lead for that ring fence around portugal, italy, ireland, spain.........
Just read that at Bloomberg and must admit am a little surprised that his nationalism takes over from his banker role. Impressive.
you just have to make fun of his mama, and its all downhill from there.
things are getting ugly.
Madam Furer won't be happy
default bitchez.
This country is bankrupt anyway. Official filing or not does not make a difference.
Playing the Nazi card just shows which moronic level the conversation hits.
Greece has lived above their means and Greek politicians betrayed Europeans, lying that they would do so well ... with the help of Goldman cooking their books.
It's no different from the progressive lib's, when confronted with harsh truth, play the race card, or in this case, the culture card. Most of Europe is still trying to blame the Nazi Party, which basically crumbled some 70 odd years ago, for all of the on-going problems...amazing. UFB in fact.
It's like Black American's still clinging to the slavery argument or the Jews with the Holocaust, enough already, we know, we fucking know and we get it. But it's time to move on jackwagon.
More recently, it's Bary Obummer still blaming Bush after 3+ years of fucking up on his own... People will always project blame and deflect responsibility when they KNOW they are wrong and have a
absolutely NO defense. So, drop a bomb and watch people scatter. It's a great deflection tactic. Thankfully, most see through it.
Godwin's law. (*)
Citi is paying $158 mill for mortgage fraud. Nothing like blind justice in America.
At least we have blind justice, I was beginning to think we had NO justice!
Whew!!!
LOL- the interest they earn on their unspent bailout money will cover that parking ticket.........
Thats nothing when they borrowed 25 BILLION in tarp?
The old boy was surrounded by the Greek military when he said that. Let's remember a couple of lessons from recent history : Merkel now wants to cancel the election in Greece because she doesn't know who will win it. The last time an election got cancelled in Greece it was because the colonels took over. We then had 7 years of military junta during which time they tried to incite a coup in Cyprus. That angered Turkey and there was very nearly a regional war.
Greece might be broke but it is the 22nd highest spender on defence as a proportion of GDP in the world. The military has run Greece in the lifetime of a large proportion of the population. We have a tinderbox where the people are being driven to extremist parties because the "mainstream" parties have drunk Merkel's koolaid.
This isn't a laugh. There is a real prospect of military dictatorship, clampdown on human rights, and a regional war. Merkel is an idiot. Sarkozy is an idiot. They are playing with fire and appear to think that they are in a high school debating contest.
@ Onion +2
Germans are proved to be the easy solution to breach Europe’s door. Whoever wishes to “set foot” on Europe and demolish it, the only thing he has to do is to “fool” the Germans. For a second time in less than fifty years, Europe’s idiots become the victims of foreigners and they serve their interests at the expense of Europe …it is for the second time that they take money from foreigners and they turn against their European “brothers” under their lenders’ orders …it is for the second time that the family’s fool takes “candies” from the “#r” of the neighbourhood in exchange to get him into the “bedroom” where the younger “siblings” sleep …In the “bedroom” which is common today due to the European Union...
Germany handed all the European countries over to the Jewish loan sharks, by naively believing that this way they would let Germany free. Germany put the European family at the “target” of the “markets” and it is collecting profits every time one of its members gets “executed”. The loan sharks who pretend to be the “hunters” are shooting safely in the European “hen house” because Germany has managed to “raise walls around” Europe. One after the other, Europeans are destroyed so that Merkel can pay the stupid and artificial German debts to the loan sharks.
As in all previous instances, once again its “fairy tale” is extremely misleading. Nazi Germany who used to destroy Europe in the name of the Greek ideals, does the same thing today. The surrendered, corrupting, competitive after receiving subsidies and extremely anti-European Germany pretends to be the unrivalled European power that fights for the European unity and against the corruption. This country that took advantage of the unification to serve its national interests, requires from the other countries to sell themselves out in the name of this unification. This country that even today keeps corrupting anyone around it, it threatens the corrupted ones. It “vomited” over a whole continent and now it is looking for the “spot” on its victims to punish them.
http://eamb-ydrohoos.blogspot.com/2012/02/germany-disgrace-of-europe.html
-----------------
Authored by PANAGIOTIS TRAIANOU
Ok, then it's their military dictatorship. Certainly not the only one in the world.
You think more diluted fiat would change that course?
81% of the aid package goes to the banks, i.e., the guys that made boatloads of money by lending to a state they knew was insolvent (because they provided the tricks). Plus, make no mistake, if Greece fails, the european banking system will suffer, and the other states will other suffer in turn. I believe all these talks about "helping greeks" are really rather talks about "helping our banks so that we do not suffer". SocGen and BNP have just released their numbers, they claim they have already covered 75% of losses on greek assets. So basically, the need to "help Greece" is quietly disappearing, and the other EU states are more and more likely to prefer to save the money for other states that will also need it (Portugal, Spain, Italy).
Once you realise that there is a limited amount of ressources, and that people believe (I don't know whether this is justified) that a greek default can be contained, the rational decision is to let Greece default, and provide funds to Greece afterwards to help it recover as long as it does not have access to market. My guess is that this was the intention since at least november 2011, and that Papandreou's referendum proposal went in the way, as it accelerated the pace towards default.
If you do not think this is the rational way, what do you propose ? Please remember that there are other people out there who also need the money, and that there are also lots of people in Germany who earn less than the minimal wage in Greece (400EUR/month).
Ouch..... a little reference to the past there.....
"We always had the pride to defend not just our own freedom, not just our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe."
When you fukkers were storming across it(Europe)!!!....I guess is what he was thinking....
He must have been thinking of the continuous hyperinflation Greece suffered during the war, caused by funding endless deficits via the printing press.
Oh actually, that's probably not what he's thinking of.
It was only a inflation rate of 100.000.000%, hardly hyperinflation...
Meanwhile Obama offers food stamps to all Americans in return for a vote in the upcoming election!
Not to mention the Mc coupons deals!
We always had the pride to defend not just our own freedom, not just our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe.
Just not against bankers.
Tell the EU to fuck off and be very vocal about it. Call their bluff. If Greece crawfishes on all their debts, the EU has the bigger problem.
And if Greece does it, the whole thing goes boom, as the rest of the PIIGS will be one move behind and will scramble for the remaining chairs.
pods
Yes yes yes yes yes
2 Little 2 Late you have sold your sole to the masters of Europe.
Note to Greece- It's not like you don't have options
Yep, they can always burn olive oil for fuel.
Unless of course they have some gold to re-hypothecate the Drachma.