Greece Demands Germany Pay $303 Billion for World War II Reparations
Greece has said Germany must pay what it owes to the Balkan nation following the Nazi occupation during World War II.
The Greek government has asked for more than 200 billion euros in reparations, which Germany said it already paid decades ago.
Greece has revived the issue of German war reparations as the country continues to struggle with its debt and faltering economy. According to the BBC, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his far-left Syriza Party have asked the German government to pay €272 billion or $303 billion for what Nazi Germany did during its occupation of Greece starting on 1941.
Prime Minister Tsipras brought up the issue when he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month.
"According to our calculations, the debt linked to German reparations is 278.7bn euros," Greek Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas told the parliamentary committee investigating the causes behind Greece's debt crisis.
Minister Mardas included in the new sum a loan Germany forced Greece to pay for the sum of €10.3 billion.
However, Germany does not agree that it must pay any money to Greece, arguing it had settled the matter in 1960 when Germany paid the Greek government 115m Deutschmarks. Greece says the amount did not account for destroyed infrastructure, war crimes, and the abovementioned loan.
"To be honest I think it's dumb. I think that it doesn't move us forward one millimeter on the question of stabilizing Greece," said German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
However, the Greek people do not find it stupid. The Telegraph reports a recent poll shows around 80 percent of Greeks support Germany paying war reparations.
Germany, nonetheless, will not budge on the issue of reparations.
"For me the figure of 278.7 billion euros of supposed war debts is neither comprehensible nor sound," Eckhardt Rehberg, budget expert for the German government, told Reuters. "The issue of reparations has, for us, been dealt with both from a political and a legal perspective."
However, Germans of the far-left Linke Party and members of the Green Party support the idea of paying Greece what they are due.
As the two countries argue over war repayments, the deadline for Greece's debt payments looms. Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said Greece will pay the International Monetary Fund €450 million this week, according to the Guardian, soothing worry over slow financial negotiations.
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