Anger at Oswald interview
Greek officials yesterday said Denis Oswald should mind his own business after the International Olympic Committee’s chief inspector for the Athens 2004 preparations, in a recent interview, speculated on the effect next year’s parliamentary elections will have on the Games. Government spokesman Christos Protopappas said Oswald’s comments – which appeared in the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Saturday – were «inexcusable.» «Political developments in Greece are judged by Greeks alone,» he said. And Telemachos Hytiris, Protopappas’s deputy for Olympic preparations, said Oswald «has no say in Greece’s internal affairs. His job concerns preparations for the Olympics, and he should stick to that.» Oswald, who praised the state of Greece’s preparations during a visit in August, had said the Games were a campaign issue in Greece. «That makes our work even more difficult. There could be a new government before the Games,» he said, noting that PASOK is trailing New Democracy in the polls. «But even if [PASOK] wins, a lot of faces will change,» Oswald said.
