Giannis Kibouropoulos on German responsibility for the Greek crisis

With an ironic letter to the Germans Giannis Kibouropoulos responds in the weekly O Kosmos tou Ependiti to the "Letter to the Greeks" published in Germany's weekly magazine Stern last week. Kibouropoulos believes the Germans are partly to blame for the Greek financial crisis: "Dear Hans, Dear Peter, Dear Ulla, Dear Hanna. Let me tell you something about the fundamental myth that has made you distrustful, not to say hostile, towards Greek society. ... It is true that my country has received almost 46 billion euros from the EU in the past 30 years. It would be truly scandalous if the favour wasn't returned. Greece has done so - and more than generously. A glance at the Greek-German balance-of-trade deficit will suffice to see that it is twice as high as the EU funding [the country was granted]. ... For your country to continue making a profit and remain the world's largest exporter certain other countries had to put up with deficits. This is what happened to us. We became a supermarket for German products: helicopters, airplanes, tanks, submarines, cars, ovens, refrigerators, washing machines."

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