POLITICIANS CAN BE STUPID
SOMETIMES, SAYS GERMAN DIPLOMAT
|
G
|
ermany’s
foreign minister, says politicians can be stupid sometimes, in response to
comments by a senior EU politician quipping that southern European countries
squandered their money on ‘booze and women’.
Jeroen
Dijsselbloem, chair of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, rekindled lingering
anger over the euro zone debt crisis by telling a newspaper “I cannot spend all
my money on booze and women and plead for your support afterwards.
“This principle
applies on the personal, local, national and also the European level,” he told
the Frankfurter Allgemeine.
German Foreign
Minister Sigmar Gabriel, speaking in Athens, one of the countries worst hit by
debt and austerity, called the comment unbelievable.
“The fact that
politicians sometimes talk nonsense is not proof that the European idea doesn’t
work. This is my response,” he added.
Portuguese
Prime Minister Antonio Costa said Dijsselbloem should resign, while other
nations, including Greece, have chided the remarks as sexist.
The Dutchman,
whose five-year term ends in January, has refused to quit but said he regretted
the comments. READ MORE
Comments