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The deputy chairman of the Greek government Teodoros Pangalos asked in an interview for BBC the Germans to pay compensation to Greece for the damages caused during the World War two. The Greek government rushed to demarcate itself form the statements of Mr. Pangalos.

In an interview for the reporter of BBC in Athens, Mr. Pangalos judged Germany for its position towards the Greek financial problem and stressed that “Germany during the Nazism destroyed the Greek economy by taking all the money and gold from the Bank of Greece and never gave it back and this is a mater that needs to be solved in the future.”

Mr. Pangalos also stated that the political leaders today cannot be compared as qualities witht the European leaders from the 80s. The deputy chairman of the government said that Francois Mitterrand, Margaret Tatcher and Helmut Kohl would have never let such an economic crisis to storm in.

The statements of Todoros Pangalos were published in the British press along with the conversation of the German spokesmen of the Ministry of foreign affairs Andreas Peske who responded that “going back to the past would not give the solution to the problems in the present.” Mr. Peske noted that Germany had helped Greece since1960 until now more with more than 16 billion euro.

The representative of the German ministry of interior rejected the statements that his country owns billions of euro to Greece since the time of the occupation. He presented data according to which Western Germany has paid to Greece 115 million German marks (about 60 million euro) under contracts from the 60s for the military compensations.

In the interview for BBC, Mr. Pangalos expressed his composure towards the strike on Wednesday of the employees in the private and public sector in Greece against the measures of the government saying that these reactions do not bother him and the government will continue with its policy. He commented that according to researches of the public opinion the majority of the people support the governmental policy.

In relation to another scandal related to Greece – about the inadequate statistical data using which the country entered in the EU, Mr. Pangalos stated that this is a procedure which other countries used as well and blamed Italy that it has also presented much more inadequate data about its economy with the purpose of entering in the European family.

As far as it comes to the provocative cover with Aphrodite of Milos which is showing the middle finger and heading of the article “The frauds in the European family” of the German magazine Focus, the representative of the German government Ulrih Wilhelm commented that there is a freedom of press in Germany.

In order to express the outrage of the members of Parliament related to the publications in the German press the chairman of the Parliament Filipos Petsalnikos met the German ambassador Wolfgang Schuthais in Athens. The counter strike in the means for mass communication should not affect the relations between Germany and Greece said the ambassador of Germany.