Alternate Foreign Minister Nikos Xydakis called Greece and Germany allies and partners in the struggle to confront the refugee crisis, speaking on Tuesday to Praktorio 104.9 FM.
“Germany has saved and received people regardless of what some extreme circles inside the country say and Germany is Greece’s ally and partner, they have a relation,” said Xydakis.
Referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he said that with lots of courage she successfully overturned the stereotypes. “There is a significant part of the public opinion in Germany that supports her but extreme voices exist in her party too.”
Commenting on the continuous aggressive statements of European officials against the Greek government’s dealing with the refugees issue, he said that based on the national law of the European countries, nothing different from what is applied can be done and reminded that if Italy, Germany, Sweden and Austria are excluded, there are a number of countries that accepted a few number of refugees or none.
“What is lurking behind every aggressive statement is the easily explainable need of every member state to avoid whatever repercussion of that historic pressure that plagues the Mediterranean and the Middle-East. Not to take a single refugee,” he noted.
Besides, responding to those who link Greece’s management of the refugees with the economic crisis, Xydakis said that any country after six years of recession succeeds in this field with work and infrastructure is a feat.
Concluding, the minister said that high tension prevails inside EU, huge differentiations from country to country and an effort, that is still fruitless, for a common policy. “I believe that the non-achievement and non-implementation of a common strategy and a common practice is the source of all the problems and the centrifugal tendencies that we are experiencing at the moment,” he said.
