News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

Greece: Danger of Nazism favorite topic of new government

06 February 2015
2 minute read

The danger of Nazism has become a favorite topic of speeches being made by representatives of the Greek Government, which is facing off against the anti-Semitic, xenophobic Golden Dawn party, the third-strongest party in Parliament. Agence France-Presse reports that Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis most recently raised the specter of Nazism while visiting his German Counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, in Berlin.

"Germany should be proud of the eradication of Nazism. When I go home this evening I will find a Parliament in which the third-strongest political force is not a neo-Nazi party, but a Nazi one," the Greek minister said solemnly, repeating the same words he used at a press conference in Paris last Sunday.

Golden Dawn was first elected to the Greek Parliament in 2012 and has maintained practically the same level of support through the recent elections more than a week ago. That result came despite the fact that 70 of the party’s most important representatives have been charged with crimes.

In an interview with German television on Wednesday, Varoufakis spoke of "the danger of humiliating a proud nation for too long", drawing a bold parallel between today’s Greece, which is grappling with demands for an austerity policy from its creditors, and Germany in the 1930s, which defied the 1919 Treaty of Versailles that was concluded after its defeat in WWI. The aftermath of the high reparations payments to the victors of that conflict added to the vigor of the arguments made by German Nazis, who managed to take power thanks to a deep economic and social crisis.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras laid a bouquet of roses on 27 January at the memorial to 200 Greek left-wing resistance fighters executed by the Nazis in 1944. Today Tsipras accepted an invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII which will take place on 9 May in Moscow.  

"The fight against Nazism is very important," the Greek PM said. Athens likes to point out that the errors of the Treaty of Versailles should not be repeated, as well the issue of a forced wartime loan of 476 million Reichsmarks made to Germany by Greece, which the Greek Government viewed as theft after 1945.

Tsipras got to power thanks to specifically promising to reduce Greece’s debt burden. Agence France-Presse reports that he has also promised, within the framework of the international bailout program instituted over the past few years, to see reparations from Germany for the forced loan and for damages caused to the country by German occupation during WWII.

Help us share the news about Romas
Trending now icon