I have worked for almost 25 years as foreign correspondent covering politically and economically ‘difficult’ countries with declared enemies. However all these years, I have never seen or done anything like this. A member of the foreign press to intervene in the internal politics of a sovereign country. The reporter of a conservative German newspaper, “Sueddeutsche Zeitung”, wrote an article about the leader of the main opposition party Nea Dimokratia, Antonis Samaras, directly attacking him as “Profiteer of doom”. In the lead of the article, we read:
“To cope with the debt crisis, Europe hopes to close ranks between Athens government and opposition. But a few hours before the confidence vote this wish remains probably unfulfilled. Opposition leader Samaras is one of those irresponsible politicians who gave Greece the crisis. He wants power at any price.”
The clumsy article continues:
“The 60-year-old Samaras has managed in recent years to establish himself as a model of that irresponsible and selfish politician type who gave Greece the crisis. … One rubs his eyes… Greek version of clientelism and kleptocracy … criminal sloppiness… They falsified the budget figures reported to Brussels, pushed tens of thousands cousins, uncles, daughters and friends to tenured civil service posts created for cousins, uncles, daughters and friends in the party. That was: New Democratia.. And who was the last minister of culture of this party? Exactly: Antonis Samaras.”
More or less in the same tune but in more sophisticated style is the attack against Samaras on the German edition of Financial Times. The article, written in Berlin, with title “Head of the Day – Antonis Samaras: The No-Sayer” you can read here. However beware of small misleading information like “he is the son of a politicians’ family from Athens”.
I am not either a nea Dimokratia nor a Samaras-supporter. I may not even like his nose. But as I said at the beginning it is the first time I see foreign media directly attacking a political leader of a sovereign country. Smart-Alecks dressed as reporters? Arrogant discredits? Panic-attackers? Cold-Feet Carriers? Interests-fighters? Interesting enough is that both newspapers mention the possibility of Samaras becoming the next Prime Minister of Greece.
One of the really unpleasant aspects of the economic crisis is that the Greeks have to read or hear all the tasteless and often unethical figments of a prejudiced fantasy. SDZ wrote” One rubs his eyes”. All I can say is, no one stuns or wonders anymore about Knock-Out punches under the belly. The beer belly.
German narrow-minded mentality found a new scape-goat. And this can dangerously backfire. The German media can turn Samaras into a “hero opposing Europe’s dictates” and help him be indeed the next prime minister of Greece.
Greek Crisis can really be inspiring.
from UK Sunday Times
Man, we almost died laughing….
Thanks for all your hard work getting the truth out about what is going on for all us English readers!! We appreciate it very much! Kudos to you!!!
Antonis Samaras just got Alinskied. That is what the left and the MSM do.
Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
“…any target can always say, ‘Why do you center on me when there are others to blame as well?’ When your ‘freeze the target,’ you disregard these [rational but distracting] arguments…. Then, as you zero in and freeze your target and carry out your attack, all the ‘others’ come out of the woodwork very soon. They become visible by their support of the target…’
“One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.” (pps.127-134)
Rule 5: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.
Sorry, but I can’t agree with your anti-German rant here.
Germans are being “asked” (or better: told) to pay for countries that have absolutely no prospects of ever getting out of the holes they dug themselves in. After “guaranteeing” (=paying) for dozens of billions of Euros of greek debt, all Germans get to hear is: you thrifty german nazi bastards! Cold-as-ice snakes! You owe us!
Now you are ranting about Germans who point out the shortcomings of greek politics (from their point of view) and all you have to say is: They are interfering with the politics of a sovereign nation!
Greeks demand money from Germany, Greeks will have to put up with german interference/criticism; get used to it.
Before you mention it…no, Germany is not rying to save its banks. German banks already offloaded their greek debt holdings – to the ECB. So basically, Germany is trying to save the ECB and the EURO.
And Germany was not the main beneficiary of the EURO; the EURO led to maasive outflows of capital to high – yield (southern) countries, fueling bubbles there while at the same time said capital was unavailable to German investment, causing a lost decade for Gemany. Now that the money is flowing back to Germany, Germany is seeing ac economical boom. Finally, Germany was No. 1 exporter long before the EURO was created.
So all in all Germany is acting against its own interests to save the EURO. That the German media is not cheering the fact that Germany is forced to pay dozens of billions of EUROS (with no end in sight) to save a country where tax evasion is still a national sport is understandable, in my opinion.
PS: Greece was broke to varying degrees ever since its independece from the Ottoman Empire in 1821…why would it be any different now?
Holy Jerryshit,
until the last sentence came it was just another opinion and opinion everyone seems to have, but:
Being “broke” after 400 years of occupation isn’t normal for the goosestepper.
Also easy going: 1923! When Greece’ population doubled through nice assistance from Germany’s best buddy Turkey (“Arbeit Macht Frei” for the Bagdad-Bahn, Pontos, Smyrna – how many got slaughtered: 1 Million?)
The broke-joke’s getting tight: 162 billions that Germoney just forgot to pay in it’s 1990 haircut.
No wonder it made off with “Wischi-Waschi” (Wirtschaftswunder)…
Interview with Prof. Albrecht Ritschl about ww2-reparations and germans dangerous behaviour today:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,769703,00.html
Manolis Glezos – 162 bln: http://www.athensnews.gr/issue/13434/38961
Sorry, but I can’t agree with the anti-Greek rant of the german media everywhere.
Germans created a near genocide in Greece and stole HUGE amounts of money during WWII (which they never returned as others did. Germans will have to put up with greek criticism; get used to it.
I am totally surprise “it is the first time [you] see foreign media directly attacking a political leader of a sovereign country”
In my life I have seen this all the time. And what did they say wrong about Samaras? Not at lot. And yes, I read the pieces.
Look, I understand the hurt and pain of getting this tsunami of texts from abrought. And a lot of it is indeed badly informed and often totally uncalled for. But welcome to the real world. Think how a north African guy must feel who was born and bread in western Europe and constantly is hearing that he, his culture and his religion are the scumm of the earth? It’s the same as you are experiencing now.
Come off it. There is no big plan behind it. Just stupidity and greed. And the stupidity and blind greed of Greece’s political class makes it far to easy. Own goal after own goal. And slowly running this country totally into the ground. Yes, I can understand why foreigners are completely bewildered to find the conservative oposition leader taking positions they would expect from his socialist counterpart. And they see no alternative here. And be honest, there isn’t. Greece is like a big ship at night with rocks and icebergs all around it and its captain and crew are completely hell bent on destruction…
(hope this isn’t getting too much words)
SDZ isn’t conservative, haha! It’s more or less “social-democrat” and it’s the paper with the most articles about Greece in german language. There you can find since years information about the corrupters from Siemens, etc and their protection by german justice, most germans don’t know nothing about and most other media still ignore.
The typical german journalist is a frat car driving rich prick that was uselessly taught in university not to be like Goebbels.
Indeed they all enjoy their anti-hellenism a lot and it sells like sex in the seventies…
Here is a small pdf-brochure in german that could provide german speaking tourists with counterinformation; someone should bring it to Syndagma and the other squares:
http://www.rosalux.de/publication/37617/verkauft-doch-eure-inseln-ihr-pleite-griechen.html
Btw: Also – including the media – noone in Germoney knows the numbers of non-voters in Greece!
On tvxs are more links to german language papers but i found this one more interesting:
http://tvxs.gr/news/%CF%80%CE%B5%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B2%CE%AC%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%BF%CE%BD/%CF%83%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%B1-%CE%BA%CE%B9%CE%BD%CE%B4%CF%8D%CE%BD%CE%BF%CF%85-%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%B1-%CF%84%CE%B7-%CE%BC%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%89%CF%83%CE%B7-%CF%84%CF%89%CE%BD-%CF%88%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%B9%CF%8E%CE%BD-%CF%83%CF%84%CE%BF-%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BF-%CE%B1%CE%B9%CE%B3%CE%B1%CE%AF%CE%BF
I would title it with something like: “send the dynamite fishers to turkey’s (or fyrom’s) coast” hahaha or “Best fish in Imia” hehe
I was never in favor of New Democracy, but before I go to bed at night now, I thank God for Samaras and pray he does not change his mind. The only blow to the troika came when they couldn’t get Samaras to play nice. In the US, bipartisanship is the method of enacting measures against the will of the majority. They think it gives the measure legitimacy.
Everyone knows that soon this government will fall. The next government will have an easier time saying they don’t recognize the midterm plan when only 1 party voted for it (and just barely a majority). I realize Samaras’ motives are for his own personal ambition. Who cares? Is Papandreou Mother Teresa? God knows what his motives are for impoverishing the people and selling the country.
Thanks for writing about this. It’s a real eye-opener.
I thought you might want to see this: “Greek Opposition Leader Star Target at EU Summit”
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13917567
The description of the situation echoes what you were saying: “an unusual case of collective meddling by EU leaders in a member country’s domestic politics.”
Thanks God the German newspaper, “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” DID NOT reveal to the public the real reason the “absolute” star Anna Vissy had dumped her “Samaroulis”, when both were young and ambitious!