Greek defense minister chides Schaeuble over comments
Greece’s Defense Minister Panos Kammenos (photo) has accused German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of exercising a form of “psychological warfare” on Greece through his repeated comments about the country.
“I do not understand why he criticizes Greece every day with new statements,” Kammenos told the German daily Bild.
“It’s like psychological warfare and Schaeuble is poisoning the relationship between the two countries through that.”
Kammenos also made reference to a financing scandal that rocked Schaeuble’s Christian Democratic Union party in 2000.
“It is not as if Germany and Mr Schaeuble have always been perfect,” he added.
“We Greeks remember perfectly well Mr Schaeuble having to quit the presidency of his party because he was implicated in a corruption scandal. And yet today he’s finance minister.”
Kammenos also told the German magazine that a Greek exit from the euro would have a knock-on effect in the rest of the eurozone.
“If Greece explodes, Spain and Italy will be next and then at some point, Germany. We therefore need to find a way within the eurozone, but this way cannot be that the Greeks keep on having to pay.”
