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The Left called for war damages for Axis occupation and accused German banks of playing a "wretched game of profiteering at the expense of the Greek people".
Mainstream New Democracy was no nicer. "How does Germany have the cheek to attack us over our finances when it has still not paid compensation for Greece's war victims? There are still Greeks weeping for lost brothers," said ex-minister Margaritis Tzimas.
This is deeply hurtful to Germany, a vibrant democracy that has played its difficult part in Europe for 60 years with dignity. No country could have done more to overcome its demons. It has paid the EU bill, and paid again, rarely grumbling.
Yet a decade of monetary union has created such a wide and self-perpetuating gap between North and South that everything in EU affairs is poisoned. German-Greek relations are the worst in my lifetime.
Nobel economist Paul Krugman said there is no point blaming any one country for this "Euromess". "Europe's policy elite bears the responsibility," he said. "It pushed hard for the single currency, brushing off warnings that exactly this sort of thing might happen, although even eurosceptics never imagined it would be this bad." Actually, we did, Professor. Thanks anyway.
Europe's monetary union has become an instrument of deflation torture
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