President of Greece Karolos Papoulias, accused German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Wednesday of insulting Greece, reflecting the growing public resentment of almost daily lectures from Berlin on the dire state of the Greek economy.
A visibly angry Papoulias singled out Schaeuble after he appeared to suggest Greece might go bankrupt, and also attacked critics of his country in the Netherlands and Finland.
“I cannot accept Mr Schaeuble insulting my country,” said Papoulias, 82, who participated in the resistance against the Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
“Who is Mr Schaeuble to insult Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finnish?,” he said in a speech at the defence ministry.
The comments by Papoulias, who studied law in Germany and speaks German fluently, marked a highly unusual foray into international controversy for him.
In a radio interview earlier, Schaeuble asked whether the troika could be assured that Athens would stick to the bailout deal after likely elections in April.
“When you look at the internal political discussions in Greece and the opinion polls, then you have to ask who will really guarantee after the elections … that Greece will stand by what we are now agreeing with Greece,” he told SWR2 radio, a public broadcaster serving the German southwest.
He also claimed that recession-weary Greeks were being let down by their politicians who are failing work together effectively and are not implementing reforms needed to make their country run more efficiently.
He said the eurozone was now better prepared for the financial failure of one of its members, but insisted the willingness to help Athens was still there.
Earlier, the president said he had given up his salary in a symbolic gesture of support for recession-hit citizens.
Papoulias receives an annual income of 283,694 euros for the job. His term of office expires in 2015.
The president announced his decision at a meeting with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, three days after parliament slashed Greece’s minimum wage as part of a drastic new austerity package.
Source: Reuters
