In euro zone crisis, misinformation and righteous indignation go a long way.
ATHENS, Greece — First came the 2010 Greek bailout, at 110 billion euros (about $160 billion).
That backfired. A year later, a second rescue was needed. Through it all, both sides have groused.
The Germans wanted to know why they, the hard-working folks in the European Union, had to help out those lazy Greeks.
And the Greeks said the Germans ought to check their facts. Turns out the Greeks were right.
"[People] in countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal should not retire earlier than in Germany," German Chancellor Angela Merkel told her party colleagues in May. "We cannot have a shared currency with one nation getting lots of holiday and another very little."
In recent months, the EU has struggled with how to solve the euro debt crisis in Greece, Portugal and Ireland as those countries sink deeper into trouble.
Merkel, facing a public tired of being "an open wallet" for carrying the largest burden for the Greek bailout, has long pushed for stern austerity measures for the debt-ridden countries. But she has resisted different measures at every turn while the anti-Greek rhetoric grows.
That sentiment is now rampant across Germany, in the popular press and across political parties. The German magazine Focus called Greeks the “frauds of the EU.” It's trickled down into the populace.
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Tommi, a 45-year-old taxi driver waiting for a fare in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, said it's ridiculous for Germany to be "Europe's wallet."
"We work hard, and of course that is why we are doing so well," he said. "Why should we pay for the others when they don't do the same?"
But the German finger-pointing doesn't hold up. Here’s something widely reported in Germany that falls on deaf ears: Greeks work longer than Germans, according to Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics.
Germans work 1,390 hours annually, while Greeks put in 2,119 hours on average.
The average German enjoys 30 days off, plus 10 national holidays. In comparison, Greeks have 23 days off, plus seven national holidays.
Even Greece’s real retirement age — when people actually retire, not when they're legally expected to do so — is slightly higher that Germany's. It’s expected to rise to 63.5 by 2015, surpassing Germany’s by two years.
Greeks, meanwhile, are enraged by the German response to their crisis.
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“When the media bashes Greece, I feel like they’re complete hypocrites,” said Maria Kodogiani, a 33-year-old Greek who works in Berlin as a movie producer. They forget to mention we’re still on their list of countries importing military equipment and consumer goods.”
In fact, Greece is only one percentage point behind Turkey, Germany’s No. 1 defense customer.
The rampant anti-Greek sentiment in Germany has also washed up on Greek shores.
In tourist destinations, Greeks complain about the way some German tourists act. “A big percentage of the Germans walking in my store have an attitude,” said Elisa Malliaraki, a 30-year-old pharmacist in Rhodes.
“Since they’re helping us with the bailout, they walk in here as if they own the place."
Greeks and Germans have a long, uncomfortable history with each other. The Greeks were once governed by a tax-happy Bavarian king. And during World War II, German forces and their Axis allies invaded, killing hundreds of thousands of Greeks.
After the war, millions of Greeks poured into Germany as guest workers, to help the German economy roar back to life.
Since then, with the establishment of the EU and the euro zone, regional economies have grown more dependent on each other.
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For a decade, Greece, Italy and Spain borrowed at low interest rates because their credit rating was bolstered by the strength of euro zone partners Germany and France. This borrowed money fueled southern Europe’s economies, and their consumers in turn spent their new wealth on French and German products.
“German exports rose only due to the fact that Greek and the rest [of] southern European economies increased their consumption expenditure,” said Thodoris Pelagidis, professor of economics at the University of Piraeus.
Of course, that’s only one part of the problem in Greece. The country’s economy was also overly dependent on government spending for wages, pensions and infrastructure. Corruption has also played a role.
In the meantime, analysts charge that the rest of Europe knew what was happening in Greece, Italy and Spain and merely turned a blind eye. While the German economy kept growing, southern European nations kept amassing debt. The Greek politicians kept partying, and German leaders kept blaming the easy scapegoats to the south — all as the crisis loomed.
"What is causing a lot of problems for (Merkel) is the contuing debate and doubt over whether or not the euro system is going to work in terms of Germany," said Jackson Janes, executive director of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. "That’s something that she hasn't been able to effectively explain to a lot of Germans. (Merkel) did try to get out in front and tell the Germans about the euro (crisis) at different points but there has been a certain hesitancy to do that in front of (important elections)."
Jabeen Bhatti contributed to this piece from Berlin.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/germany/110828/greece-germans-euro-zone-debt-crisis-global-economy
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