"Who is Mr. Schäuble who is ridiculing Greece"?

In an unprecedented outburst, President Karolos Papoulias attacked the Germans, the Dutch and the Finns who are behaving not as partners but as nothing more than brutal lenders who want to take Greece to the mat.

“I do not accept that my country is mocked by Mr. Schäuble. I cannot accept this as a Greek! Who is Mr. Schäuble who can ridicule my country? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns? We have always had our pride not only in defending our own freedom, not only our own country, but also the freedom of Europe”, stated Mr. Papoulias after his visit to the Ministry of Defense and his meeting with the political and military leadership of the Pentagon.

Preceding this were statements by the German Finance Minister, which showed a clear interference in the politics of our country, especially concerning the prospect of holding elections.

The reports of the President on the maneuvers and tactics of the German side, and especially the German Minister of Economics Wolfgang Schäuble, is sure to cause headaches in Berlin. This is because Mr. Papoulias is a person of Germanic education and a politician who rarely explodes, and he chose specific phrases to denounce the attitude of the Germans towards Greece.

“I will not invoke the Churchill cliches about the heroic resistance of the Greeks”, stated the President during his meeting in the Pentagon. “I have the same sensitivities that you do and we must have them at this time also, because I believe that the political class must subscribe to these sensitivities as well. It must stand by its mission with the example that you, the soldiers, give. You carve out the way of duty, above all. And above all stands the salvation of our country, of the History of Greece”.

With absolute clarity, the President pledged to continue to defend the just demands of the armed forces. “I separate myself from some who think that the armed forces do not toil, that they do not work superhumanly, and I think that it is one of the social classes which works most than all of us, in conditions that many of us cannot stand. These conditions take place in the mountains bordering Bulgaria, on Grammos, on our country’s islands”, stated Mr. Papoulias.

The “explosion” of the President comes a few hours after he had indicated that he is foregoing the remuneration arising from his office for the good of the country.