See http://www.testosteronepit.com/home/2011/11/17/european-bailout-fund-for-greek-money-laundering-and-fraud.html .

Unbelievable.

Don’t you realise that Greece was occupied by the Ottomans for many centuries and that even after independence in 1832 it was controlled by outside interests. The continued effort to bring all the Greek people (including the majority who were in Anatolia) together dragged on amid much misfortune and disaster until the 1920’s. After the Asia minor disaster, 1.5 million Greeks were expelled from Turkey ( and many muslims went the other way) and came as refugees to Greece. Less than 20 years later the Germans occupied. Then the civil war, and later the military junta.

What chance have the Greeks had to build a stable, thriving modern state? Only since 1974. It seems extremely harsh to expect them to have built all the necessary framework for a successful nation in such a short time.

Telegraph:

“Ms Merkel […] used a three-way summit with France and Italy in Strasbourg to insist that new treaty powers to intervene and punish sinner states remained the key focus of Europe’s rescue efforts. She said: “The countries who don’t keep to the stability pact have to be punished – those who contravene it need to be penalised. We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

In other words, the ordinary people of the Euromed countries have to suffer crippling austerity measures to pay for the corruption and mismanagement of their governments, the greed of their crony-capitalist, tax-evading elites and the criminally irresponsible loans and speculation of Northern European banks.

The civil war was a direct result of the occupation, for which the germans were responsible. The Italians and Bulgarians would have been chased out without the Wehrmacht.

You obviously don’t come from a country that was occupied by the Nazis or you would not be so glib about it. Maybe you should read some Greek history before commenting?

Well you are going to be a lot more tired before this ends.

The Germans are repeating mistakes of the 1930s by treating the peripheral countries as they were treated by the allies after the first world war. It can only lead to anger, despair and aggression. They seem smugly unaware that their success is fundamentally based on the support they got when they most needed it. They should be ashamed that they are apparently unwilling to offer similar help to countries they devastated.

N. SIFOUNAKIS
Website http://www.sifounakis.gr
Married to Mari Daskalontonaki of the N. Daskalantonakis Group
Parliamentary Activities
Elected MP (PASOK) for Lesvos in the general elections of 1989 (June and November), 1990 and 1993, 1996, 2000, 2007 and 2009.
Political/Social Activities
Minister for the Aegean since 13-04-2000 to 10-03-2004. Deputy Minister for Culture, 08-07-1994 to 23-06-1995; and Minister for Tourism, 23-06-1995 to 15-09-1995 and 15-09-1995 to 22-01-1996. Joined the Greek Resistance organisation, headed by Alekos Panagoulis, during the military dictatorship. Joined EDIN, the Centre Union Party Youth Organisation, after the fall of the dictatorship; after A. Panagoulis death, as a member of its Central Council he recommended that the organisation join PASOK. Lecturer in Architetura Ambientale at the Architecture Faculty of the University of Palermo, Italy.
Joined PASOK in 1976. Appointed Greek representative on the Council of Europe (Committee on Cultural Heritage) in Strasbourg in October 1981. Prefect of Lesvos (1983-1987).
Director General of ERT1, the Greek State Radio and Television Network (1987-1989). Received an award from Europa Nostra for his contribution to the preservation of Europe’s architectural heritage.

Yes, of course, that is the crucial issue, and thanks for drawing it to our attention. I hope you can find some more information on it – the hotel stuff was all I could find on the Daskalantonakis Group, apart from their own material.

Neil
Thanks for this further piece of info. I had read about the Macedonia Palace closure-but it is the secret list that is the talking point at the moment, because of the huge amounts of unpaid taxes by the very richest Greeks, and the fact that these tax evaders are known, but they seem to be so powerful that no one can touch them. I am not referring to those even richer Greeks who not only have all their money outside Greece (i.e., the Latsis group that has immensely powerful banking interests as well as in the petroleum sector.

Margaret: on the Macedonia Palace Hotel closure, see http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/11/18/landmark-thessaloniki-hotel-set-to-close/ .

And another of their hotels to be closed: http://www.athens-express.gr/en/news.php?action=view&id=75