"Adolf Merkel": Presenting The Greek Gratitude For The 50% Debt Haircut

One would think that considering that their debt, or rather about 60% of it, was haircut over the past 2 days, the Greeks would be grateful to Germany who not only orchestrated this transaction over the vocal protests of her French vertically challenged counterpart, but effectively has pledged a substantial portion of German GDP to preserve not only the Greek welfare state but soon that of all the other European countries. One would be wrong.

The Mail reports:

Greeks angry at the fate of the euro are comparing the German government with the Nazis who occupied the country in the Second World War.

Newspaper cartoons have presented modern-day German officials dressed in Nazi uniform, and a street poster depicts Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as an officer in Hitler’s regime accompanied with the words: ‘Public nuisance.’

She wears a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside.

The backlash has been provoked by Germany’s role in driving through painful measures to stop Greece’s debt crisis from spiralling out of control

It gets worse:

Opposition parties blasted the landmark agreement, with conservatives warning it condemned the country to ‘nine more years of collapse and poverty’.

But it is the fury of ordinary Greeks which is raising eyebrows.

Greek government officials who agreed to the belt-tightening moves have been portrayed in cartoons giving the Nazi ‘Sieg Heil’ salute.

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos is a regular target in the liberal daily Eleftherotypia and is often shown in cartoons making a Nazi salute.

One shows a German soldier watching over Venizelos as he barks at a Greek citizen to pay more taxes.

In another cartoon, a young Greek answers a German soldier asking why there were no names on a list of Greece’s newly formed labour reserve, saying: ‘They are empty as you exterminated the Communists, the Jews, the homosexuals, the gipsies and the crazies last time.’

And the most ominous sign is that we already are seeing animosity between ordinary people on both sides of the table, people who are part of the proverbial 99%, and who have nothing to do with the disgusting arrangements at the top whose only purpose is to enrich the already uber-rich.

And German visitors flocking to ancient tourist sites are being met with a hostile welcome from some Greeks.

If that last one isn't very concerning, re-read it enough times until it is.

And while geographical proximity between Greece and Germany may be a redeeming feature to what are already preambles to outright aggression, when will geography no longer matter: when the Greek "experiment" moves to Portugal? To Belgium? To France? Is it time to start plant more trees in the Ardennes forest?