Yesterday (March 10) German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble made an unusually tough statement on Greece, indicating that Greece must fulfill all its obligations stemming from the memorandum of understanding (signed by the previous government) in order to get the next installment paid.
It should be noted that on all occasions, the new Greek government has said that it will negotiate a new agreement. Initially, the SYRIZA led government stated and later implied, that it does not recognize the memoranda signed by the previous governments.
Failure to negotiate, failure to communicate
The new Greek government has finally understood that international agreements and foreign loans must be fulfilled regardless of political changes. In the past days, the new government was trying to gain communication points with its voters, who were expecting a cancelation of all loans and obligations, or in the least, a hard re-negotiation with concrete gains. The Prime Minister Tsipras and Finance Minister Varoufakis communication effort almost succeeded by renaming the supervisory team of the creditors from “troika” into “institutions” and the “Memorandum of Understanding” into “Agreement.”
However, the government’s smooth disengagement from its pre-election rhetoric was interrupted by the statements of Wolfgang Schäuble who said that Greece must guarantee that the existing MoU is fulfilled, there might be an installment paid. He also added that Minister Varoufakis was the only minister in the Eurogroup to believe that time was not lost and that the Institutions, formerly called troika, must once again return to Athens.
Morality a la carte
The statements of Wolfgang Schäuble were interpreted by Athens as a “declaration of war.” The backlash was immediate, as late last night the Parliament was convened in plenary and decided to establish a special committee to evaluate the obligations of Germany towards Greece. Such obligations stem from the forced loan, taken by the Nazi occupying forces from the Bank of Greece. The German justification: the expenses of the maintaining an occupation army in Greece. Other claimed damages include war reparations and archeological treasures stolen by Wehrmacht (unified Nazi forces).
In the past, West Germany refused any discussion claiming that the country was divided. However after the unification of the two Germanies, BRD and DDR on 3 October 1990, united Germany kept refusing to come to the table.
Last night, the Greek Parliament decided unanimously to raise the issue of the German obligations to Greece and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras stated that Greece is committed to its obligations but the same applies to all parties involved, as “morality is not
a la carte.”
The Distomo damages
In escalating the confrontation the Greek Minister of Justice announced that he would sign the execution order to confiscate property of the German state in Greece (Embassy, Goethe Institute, etc.) for damages in the case of Distomo.
On 10 June 1944, Nazi occupying forces in Distomo (Boetia, Greece) executed all civilians (117 women and 111 men including 53 children below 16) and burned all the houses of the village, as punishment for a sabotage committed in the area against German troops by the Greek resistance. The relatives of the victims brought the issue to the Court, which decided that the German state must pay for damages.
The German State refused any payments.
The Court’s decision was not enforced, as for any confiscation of property of a foreign state (in all EU member States) the approval of the Minister of Justice must be granted. During the Parliament’s plenary last evening the Minister of Justice Paraskevopoulos announced that will grant the permission for the enforcement of the Court’s decision for the Distomo butchery.
German obligations exceed Greek loans
Information on the size of the financial obligations of Germany to Greece are estimated (1944 prices) to amount to at least € 11 bn for the forced Nazi loan and over € 110 bn for war reparations. Taking into account interest rates since then, the total Greek claims from Germany exceed € 450 bn. This figure by far exceeds all Greece’s obligations worldwide.
The issue now is that the German intransigence and exaggeration, gave the Greeks the great opportunity to bring to the table their claims from Germany.
Begging on broken glass
Until yesterday, Greece was cornered by the Eurogroup under the discrete pressure of Germany to all Members. Greece was in a situation of near total surrender.
In February 20, in a story under the title “The Zorbas Syndrome” we wrote :
Germany, in order to maintain control over the Eurozone and the EU has either to force the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsiprasto beg onhis knees on broken glass and humiliate him, or, if he does not (and seemingly he will not) penalize Greece with the ultimate punishment of kicking it out of the EU or at least the Euro.
With good manners accompanied by soft blackmailing and determination, the Eurogroup, had managed to make the Greeks become accustomed to the idea of begging on broken glass. However, yesterday’s statements of the German Finance Minister became the straw that broke the back of the camel.
Cold war on Germany
The future is difficult to forecast. The Greeks are desperate and unpredictable. The Germans lack of any flexibility and gave the opportunity to the Greeks to turn the issue into political and moral and at the same time to declare “cold war on Germany.”
In these days Germany and Greece are writing a new chapter of European history and history is written by the mistakes of people. There are many stakeholders, and power actors involved, not only the protagonists, Germany and Greece, but many individual EU Member states, Americans, NATO, the Russians and others. This game has not morphed from economic, to a geopolitical crisis.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/greece-and-germany-cold-war