German war debts to Greece evoked in emotional EU parliament debate

Feb 15, 2012, 11:05 GMT

Strasbourg, France - Germans who are reluctant to release money for a second rescue package for Greece should remember what they looted from the country during the Second World War, a leading European Union lawmaker said Wednesday.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Franco-German leader of the European Greens, was speaking in Strasbourg, France, a day after eurozone finance ministers concluded that Greece had not yet given enough guarantees to merit a 130-billion-euro (171-billion-dollar) bailout.

'If you force people to their knees you have to be straight with them,' Cohn-Bendit said in an emotional parliamentary debate, addressing himself directly to Germany, who reportedly insisted on postponing Greek bailout decisions.

Cohn-Bendit mentioned the wartime looting of Greek central bank money by Nazi forces and noted, 'with interest, there is 81 billion euros that is owed' back to Athens. 'That is another way of seeing Europe and its history.'

He also attacked 'Taliban neo-liberal' EU officials for insisting that Greece cuts pensions rather than defence spending in order to make up for a 325-million-euro budget gap for 2012.

Socialist leader Hannes Swoboda joined Cohn-Bendit in arguing that the so-called troika of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund was being too punitive towards Athens.

'Greece needs advice, not dictatorship,' Swoboda said.

Nigel Farage, a British eurosceptic who has gained notoriety for outspoken attacks on EU leaders, ridiculed Greece's technocratic premier, Lucas Papademos, calling him 'Puppet Papademos.'

But conservative leader Joseph Daul countered that tough austerity measures worked in Latvia, while German liberal Alexander Graf Lambsdorff attacked the Greek political class for failing to deliver on the economic reforms they had promised.

'The bloated state apparatus must be reduced ... the state is bloated because people simply parked their friends and relatives in ministries,' he said.

And Danish EU Affairs Minister Nicolai Wammen - speaking for the current EU presidency - rejected any suggestion that Greece could be cut any slack, despite a worsening recession there that critics say has been brought about by EU-imposed austerity measures.

'We have to tighten our belts, it is necessary and we have to go with the six pack and all the other economic measures and apply them... to restore good economic conditions,' Wammen said, referring to recent EU reforms that have introduced greater budget discipline.

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