Diversionary tactics

The daily Corriere del Ticino denounces the accusations made by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück against Switzerland as undiplomatic and offensive. (Steinbrück said the country was deliberately trying to attract German tax evaders.) It writes that Steinbrück is merely trying to divert attention from problems in his own country. "The German finance minister is obviously under great nervous strain. The wave of problems the financial crisis has brought has ... understandably affected his inner balance. But any sympathy for him has evaporated now that he has issued these hallucinatory threats to exchange the carrot for a stick. [This is] an expression that a German politician cannot afford to employ regarding a friendly neighbouring country. ... His harsh choice of words leads one to suspect that Steinbrück lacks the courage to deal with the true culprits in Germany's financial crisis and is therefore looking for a scapegoat to divert the attention of the worried public."

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