It’s high time to start a post with a Greek saying. “Two donkeys gave been quarreling inside a foreign barn”. In our case the ‘barn’ that is Greece is empty and yet. Berlin and Paris have been quarreling on weapons deals and warships to be sold to broke Greece. It sounds unbelievable but it’s true. Paris plans to supply two to four warships to Athens, free of charge for the first five years. When the payment comes due Greece will have to pay 300 million EUR per ship. I don’t know whether the frigates are for the protection of Greece or the purchase is to enable the army of jobless to leave the country.
German weekly DER SPIEGEL has the story:
“Berlin is unhappy about a weapons deal in which France plans to supply warships to highly indebted Greece free of charge for the first five years, and at a big discount when payment comes due. Firms and politicians in Germany say taxpayers may end up paying for part of the deal, and they want Chancellor Angela Merkel to intervene.
A huge arms deal is threatening to put French-German relations under strain. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, France wants to deliver two to four new frigates to the Greek navy and to allow the highly indebted nation to postpone payment of the €300 million ($412 million) purchase price per ship for the next five years.
Under the deal, Greece will have the option of paying up after five years, with a significant discount of €100 million, or returning them to the French navy. The “stealth” frigates are designed to avoid detection by enemy radar and are built by state-owned French defense company DCNS.
The deal is being criticized by German rivals that have been competing for the contract for years.
In a letter to the German government, an executive from the ThyssenKrupp group complained that the vessel purchase will in effect be co-financed by German taxpayers because Greece, reliant on aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, may have to restructure its debts….”
Had Greece agreed with the Germans then I’m sure there would have been no objection because then ‘the deal would create jobs to German taxpayers.’ Egg-heads and politicians are everywhere the same, I ‘m afraid. There is no hope. Es gibt keine Hoffnung. Il n’ya aucun espoir. Δεν υπάρχει ελπίδα.
