Visit of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany Frank – Walter Steinmeier to the village of Kandanos, Chania, Thursday, October 31, 2024. The President of Germany laid a wreath and was guided to the Memorial Museum. (EUROKINISSI)
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier‘s three-day trip to Greece will remain etched in his memory. Not because of “valuing (Greece’s) role in protecting the EU’s external borders against illegal immigration”. And this despite the fact that the incidents at the Malakassa reception center near Athens, with desperate cries of “identities, identities” and “Germany, Germany” from refugees clinging to the barrier, forced Steinmeier to abruptly end his visit there . There really is no reason to show so much misery!
Above all, Steinmeier will remember that official Athens reiterated its demands for reparations for Germany’s World War II crimes. Relative to its size, no other country in Europe suffered as much as Greece from Nazi crimes. A million people lost their lives, the country was completely destroyed and archaeological treasures were stolen. Steinmeier, representing the official Berlin position, said with a tight expression: “No, we will not pay”! From Athens’ point of view, 400 billion euros are at stake. If Berlin does not reach out to Athens, the international courts will have to decide – as foreseen by a parliamentary resolution of Athens in April 2019 – if the German side insists on its intransigence.
It is at least infuriating that the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) now writes on this delicate matter: “Whoever still thinks in terms of payment claims for historical injustice will also have to live with retribution. No, there should be no netting. But crimes against Germans remain crimes. The expulsion and killing of millions of people, the bombing war against the civilian population, the ill-treatment of prisoners of war and the loss of a quarter of the country’s territory – and these cannot be quantified.”
As if Greece had invaded Germany – and not the other way around! Would the newspaper take such a crazy position of its editor from the “State and Law” section in the case of Russia and its invasion of Ukraine?
Read also:
Provocative FAZ text on German reparations: “And crimes against Germans remain crimes”
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#German #intransigence #Steinmeiers #trip #Greece
