It is not a joke, neither a fake news to troll the esteemed President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz. The politician from the German Social-Democrats SPD said indeed that Greeks get on his nerves!
Thursday evening, Martin Schulz was on a panel discussion at Maybrit Illner Political Show of German state broadcaster ZDF. Present was also Giorgos Chondros, board member of SYRIZA, some other politicians and academics. The talk show theme was Greece and Grexit. The discussion run in a heated atmosphere.
Picture Schulz holding his nerves
Report below compiled with information from German Magazine STERN
President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, urgently appeals to Greece to finally relent in the disagreement with the international money givers. He is working with his colleagues for find a solution the latest by the end of June, a solution “for a country of ten million people, that is facing total collapse”, Schulz says. Therefore, the Greek government was under an obligation to accept the outstretched hand – “all the other parties have finally moved further, much further than we might imagine.” Should there be no agreement, then pity “not Mr. Varoufakis, but the dockers in Athens,” Schulz says.
SYRIZA member Giorgos Chondros has apparently to suffer under Schulz’s repeatedly aggressive and self-righteous tone.
Chondros tries to explain why his country could not agree with creditors’ newest “Reforms” proposals to increase the Value Added Tax in the medicines.
Schulz rudely cuts in saying: “You can not know, but the reforms list is now in Athens, your government is consulting about it.” [everybody knew creditors’ proposals already on late Wednesday, early Thursday]
The atmosphere is rough through the whole program, the panel members deliver a wild war of words mainly in the direction of Giorgos Chondros.
Richard Sulik Chairman of the Slovak party Sloboda a Solidarita (Freedom and Solidarity).
“You want money, what else do you want? Greeks will have no chance of surviving in a monetary union with countries like Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.”
“The Greeks dance around on the creditors’ heads – according to the motto that they will give in.”
Publicist Wolfram Weimer
the Greek negotiators are “Sirtaki dancing elephants in European china shop” and Greece should return to Drachma.
Martin Schulz:
The Treaties in force do not allow that and “An exit from the euro would automatically mean exit from the EU.”
Although the whole thing is primarily the fault of previous governments, Martin Schulz thunders:
“Greeks, like Mr Varoufakis, get enormous on my nerves.”
In Athens, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis responded to Martin Schulz and said that ‘it’s not the first time some European Parliament official is not up to his institutional role.”
I don’t know who Varoufakis had in mind… But i have written several blog posts about Schulz and Schulz and Schulz and Schulz’s, not so institutionally conform behavior.
BTW: I don’t know that the European Parliament is also working on the Greek debt-solution issue next to voting for EU conform sizes of spoons, glasses and toilet papers.
PS it was a strong and powerfully eloquent discussion tv-panel over there on Greek debt problem. Applaud!
Well, if it’s any consolation, Herr Schultz, the feeling is entirely mutual.
Oh comeone KTG you can do so much better. I like it when you present hard data and I have no problems with any opinion pieces(whether I agree with them or not) but short quotes, that are out of context and even flat out wrong suck.
I watched a bit of that even before I saw your post and Ive seen Schulz before, youll hardly find any other german politician that has so often stressed that solidarity is needed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZmFyx-fb1s
Thats the talk show I didnt watch all of it but at 21:30 ist the moment you cite. Ill translate it correctly and then you guys tell me what you think.
21:34 Schulz: If youll allow it i want to say one sentence about the greek GOVERNMENT. Please dont be offended Mr Chondros when I say it like that. Sometimes they really get on my nerves, whether its Mr. Varoufakis or someone else.
21:48 You have to say one thing in defence of this Government… they are in office for 6 month. The problems that greece has were NOT caused by this government but by their predecessors, whether they were socialdemocratic or conservative, they were the one that failed. And Syriza has inherited a huge burden.
22:07 What I dont understand is what Syriza does. During the biggest crisis of this country, the richest greek mangaed to send 120billion€ out of the country. We only ever talk about cuts on social security, cuts on wages, when will start talking about that we need a tax system in europe that will ensure that not the small people in greece or germany ..
22:30 Mr Chondros: But that should be done by the Union, why are you blaming Syriza?
…little bit of hassle between the two
22:58 When will we get the chance in europe to stop the fact that the german small savers or the greek dockworkers have to pay the price for the fact that we saved a banking system, whichs meltdown wouldve hurt germans and others very badly, which is why we stabilized it with billions. And when will finally get to the point where billion heavy capitalowners will no longer be able to move their money away to other countrys, when do we start talking about the income part of the equation(as opposed to cuts). If the greek government had collected only 10% of those 120billion this would be a totally different debate.
So whether you agree with his opinions or not, he never insulted the greek people, he vented frustration about the fact that your government(in his eyes) doesnt do enough to prevent tax fraud by the super rich. Plus he actually defends Syriza in that he say theire not responsible for the mistakes of the previous goverments even though they will have to deal with the fallout.
1) sources are German Media. 2) he made blatant intervention in Greek politics just a few days after the elections. and in the previous years. for a “President” of the EP (solidarity, my haha) he should have a neutral role. period.
I guess:
If you attack Schäuble you are supported by 60% of Germans,
if you critisize Merkel by 30%,
but if you offend Schulz only 10% would back your position.
There is a reason why he is popular all over Europe.
possibly. Myths have to come down to reality though. BTW: I don’t attack anyone. They expose themselves by their own hands and lips.
Non-voters excluded?
Im a physicist, I was taught to look at the facts and only then form an opinion. Now I know no human being can be truly objective, but I give my best. So this isnt about this being Schulz. Its about the fact that this translation is a case of broken telephone and the impression you get here (and, although a bit less, if you read the stern) about what was said is just plain wrong. Doesnt mean you have to like the guy or agree with him(personally I would say Mr Chondros is having at least a very strong argument). Or in other words, it doesnt matter if this article were about stalin or jack the ripper, ghandi or nelson mandela, a wrong tranlation is a wrong translation.
Che’s quote of Schulz’s comment (‘getting on nerves’…) is 100% korrekt!
Schulz was also quoted that ‘he had enough of those Greek shenanigans’ (“ich habe diese Tricks dicke”). In actual fact, he said that he had enough of those shenanigans were one has to make cuts all the time while the rich get way with tax evasion.
In your defense, the stern got it somehat wrong too. Then again i really cant endorse stern as source of news anyway. Try spiegel.de zeit.de or just plain old tagesschau.de
I checked Stern’s text with other4-5 other German media: they all had same +same title.
Yeah, but you see the problem in this right? I dont know what else SChulz might or might not have said in the past. But this is exactly the stuff that needlessly divides us. In this case he made an absolute harmless statement. He explain why hes sometimes frustrated with your government. Stern makes the headline greeks get on my nerves out of that and only in the header mentions that he doesnt mean all greeks(whcih would be insulting and racist) but the government.
and then you make
“Although the whole thing is primarily the fault of previous governments, Martin Schulz thunders:
“Greeks, like Mr Varoufakis, get enormous on my nerves.””
Out of it, where the idea that Syriza inherited this burden somehow winds up on the other side of Schulz, evenn though in the original he stressed that.
This is exactly the kind of media frenzy that amiplifies our problems. I think in one my first posts here a few weeks back i wrote we need to talk less about each other instead of with each other.
i had recently wrote a post about what the GR crisis would be without the internet
And so it appears that possible half a million Greeks in Germany and it’s neighbour countries all had a hallucination in front of the screen, from what, German tab water?
To be honest, if any of them saw this they were more pleased by the elephant man
what are you talking about? I gave the link and the position in the video. Anyone who speaks a bit german can instantly verify that my translation is mostly correct. Ask anyone of the half a million greeks you cite.
The strategy of new Greek government to negotiate the debt was/is a big failure. Instead of finding reasonable agreements with their creditors, it seems that they are trying to blackmail them (e.g. Russia talks, blaming Germany, etc.) to accept their socialist program which conducted to the current Greek debt. The result is that Greece is alone, and nobody believes in Greek politicians. So, Grexit should be the best solution for this failed experiment (Greece in EU).
Perfect: Grexit because all idiots believe in the lies of the Goebbels-media. Not hailing huge god Germoney is blaming and informing about talks with Russia are Blackmail? The stupidity that calls unemployed “customers” brainwashed everything… Blackmail like when in 2010 China wanted to invest 34 billion in Greece, Qatar 6 an Turkey 5 and the EU said: “Nope!”
Oh, wait, that’s not blackmail that’s oppression.
And if you think talks with Russia are out of step what are talks with Germoney, the massmurderer of Kundus?
So Goebbels media and the massmurderes of Kunduz. Can you really not see the difference between then and now? Even if you assume what happened in Kunduz wasnt a mistake but done on purpose, there was a huge outcry in public and the defense minster had to resign, looks to me like democratic control in action.
Looks more like “there’s no perfect crime but democracy” or what do you think would have been the consequences of Guernika, the resign of the Condor or death sentence for the leader?
In Guernika war criminals killed 300 people and it took a few days, in Kunduz 142 and afterwards they were totally traumatized and opened up their beer-cans because the burnt flesh reminded them of bbq and then they printed t-shirts against fuel-thieves with their army-owned silkscreening. This compared Merkel and Steinmeier are war criminals that belong to The Heague. But in reality they run free because they are democrats. Funny!
Every educated journalist in the German speaking world learns about Goebbels and what happens? They use his methods, brilliant…
“do you think would have been the consequences of Guernika, the resign of the Condor or death sentence for the leader?”
I just googled what the consequences were for Guernika, the guys in command got promoted.
See this is what I meant up above by looking at the facts first and then forming an opinion. You apparently(happy to let you convince me otherwise) have your opinion first and then try to search for facts.
Now this doesnt make what happened in Kunduz less tragic but it show differences. Ill gladly name a few other, right this day some friends of mine are protesting the g7 in garmisch. You think that any kind of protest wouldve happened in nazi germany without the people at least going to jail? Or how about when the military wanted me to serve and i said: “no, that goes against my conscience” and they accepted that without question? And on and on, the list is endless.
It is funny how you want to deviate the discussion from the “real problem” (Greek debt) with discussion about “Goebbels-media, Kunduz, etc.”. Somehow, it is similar how Putin et al is talking about Ukrainian Nazis to deviate from the Russian occupation of Crimea. I’m sure that STYRZA blackmail will not impress anyone in the world and it will do very bad to Greek people for a long time. You will realize this after a few years. Trying to blame anyone from outside from your internal problems, it is grotesque. You, guys, have a glorious history and I hope soon you will be able to find good leaders which will help you to recover. I stop now my comments and sincerely, I wish the best to Greek people.
Regarding Wikipedia Weimer wanted “the cultural renaissance of the western civilization” and in 2012 “Greece fast out”.
Very interesting is that he is member of the media-sowjet for Berlin-Brandenburg and as far as I can see such organizations have to get active against racism in media.
Is it possible to sue this Sirtaki dancing bull so that he will get punished by his own gang for racism?
aren’t you used to the prejudices? it could be Gyros-Greeks in fine dine :p
“for a country of 10 million people who is facing total collapse” says Schulz.
IF GREECE REMAIN IN THE EU TOTAL COLLAPSE IS EMINENT.
THIS ALSO APPLIES TO ALL THE OTHER NATION MEMBERS.
A song to uplift us maestro please:
Helmut Lotti – Bohemian Rapsody 2003
Isn’t Helmut Lotti a sweetheart !
Schulz, an known ex alcoholic, 24000 Euro/month, has never worked in his life, a typical EU A**hole talks about reducing wages for the poor!
Dear KTG,
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Uk Telegraph:
Ashoka Mody, former chief of the IMF’s bail-out in Ireland, refuses to criticise his former colleagues on the European desk, but the meaning of the words I quoted last night are clear enough.
“Everything that we have learned over the last five years is that it is stunningly bad economics to enforce austerity on a country when it is in a deflationary cycle. Trauma patients have to heal their wounds before they can train for the 10K.”
“I am frankly shocked that we are even having a discussion about raising VAT at all in these circumstances. We have just seen a premature rise in VAT knock the wind out of a country as strong as Japan.”
“Syriza should recruit the IMF’s research department to be their spokesman because they are saying almost exactly the same thing as Syriza on the economics of this. The entire strategy of the creditors is wrong and the longer this goes on, the more is its going to cost them.”
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11654639/IMF-has-betrayed-its-mission-in-Greece-captive-to-EMU-creditors.html
yes, I saw it, had no time to feature it here. apologies.
Kalimera,
here is a crazy sum of all together 31.5 billion left over crack with that they wanna bait, that means 5.3 billion are credit and of the rest a lot belongs to Greece anyway!
If Greece forgot to take 24.3 billion means all these bailout numbers are wrong.
So far no English version around…
http://www.huffingtonpost.de/2015/06/05/griechenland-krise_n_7517866.html?utm_hp_ref=griechenland
Die Griechen, Varoufakis: “In 2022 Greece will have to pay three times the money back it has to pay back in 2021″(Interview Griechenland.blog)
Varoufakis: “Lügen, Lügen, Lügen” (Tagesspitzel) “translated” from “Fairy tales” (Ammenmärchen)
Markwart (Focus): “Im Pferd saßen Griechen, deshalb müßte der Virus anders heissen”
NTV hetzt: Griechische Jugend zeigt Hitlergruß, dabei ist es bloß Moutza gegen die Obrigkeit
http://www.n-tv.de/mediathek/videos/wirtschaft/Steuerzahlerbund-warnt-Bundestag-article5560256.html