US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — In Italy, many are disappointed with Germany‘s negative response to Eurobonds. And now the Italians remember the Germans also their past grievances – and are even more angry with them.
Ezio wanders somewhere around the castle of the Holy Angel in Rome. The city has restrictions on access to the street, but you can walk for a short time and near the house. The white-haired 73-year-old former professor of physics enjoys the warm spring sun.
But when it comes to Germany, his mood deteriorates: “This country is forgetting the history of the past 50 years. I would like to remind her that in 1953, the debts of wartime were half forgiven. Among the countries that proposed this concept was Italy. As for today’s discussions, let’s tell me something about European solidarity – let’s laugh.”
Sarcasm and indignation
The bitter sarcasm is caused by the recent “no” of Germany regarding the so-called Eurobonds – government bonds, for which all taxpayers of the EU countries would be responsible. Italy, in particular, wanted to partially finance the recovery of its economy from the crisis caused by the outbreak of coronavirus through these Eurobonds.
The rejection of the German government provoked outrage even the traditionally sympathetic towards Germany newspaper Corriere della Sera. The editors noted that in an emergency, you don’t have to rely on friends.
Solengi criticized Germany to smithereens
On social networks, the reaction is much tougher. Ten thousand views were collected by a video of the famous comedian and actor Tullio Solenghi throughout Italy. Solenghi recalled that the Germans were responsible for two world wars in the last century that claimed the lives of many millions of Jews: “The Germans are still hopelessly arrogant. Today – in economic terms. They still consider themselves the ultimate race.”
Almost all Italy knows the slogans: for almost 30 years now he has been conducting various television programs. He also did not fail to recall the assistance provided to Germany after the war: “If the Germans were then forced to fully compensate for the damage they caused during the war, today the Germans would live in slums.”
In this case, the word tedeschi – that is, “Germans” – the actor pronounces with anguish, the word spits out. Regarding the position of the German government regarding Eurobonds, Solenghi said: “Thank God, I am Italian. Yes, we are supposedly lazy and even mafiosi, as the Germans say. But we have empathy, we are going to meet people. So thank you for being Italians, not Germans.”
Conte: “No anti-German sentiment”
At the same time, in the heat of the debate about the negative response of the German government to the initiative on the issue of Eurobonds, almost no one recalls that several German federal states received more than 70 seriously ill patients from Italy several days ago for treatment.
Nevertheless, the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, in response to a question about hatred towards Germany, had swept his country, in an interview with ARD, he answered: “Absolutely not! Absolutely not, because German culture enriched me enormously, when I studied at the law faculty, and all of us. ” According to him, the economic systems and culture of the two countries are closely interconnected. “It is not true to think that anti-German sentiment reigns in Italy – this is absolutely not so!”
Reproach: Germany acts according to the “Funk Plan”
However, anti-German sentiments are noticeable not only on the streets of Italian cities and on social networks. The other day, the head of the Italian National Commission for the Supervision of Joint-Stock Companies and the Consob Exchange, Paolo Savona, in an interview with state-owned television channel RAI, drew a historical parallel:
“They again operate according to the model once provided for by the Funk Plan, developed by the Nazi Minister of Economics. According to this plan, Germany was supposed to be a country distributing orders. All other currencies should be oriented to the Reichsmark. Germany would concentrate on industrial production, and all other countries, including Italy, would be engaged in agriculture, tourism and would take care of the well-being of the Germans.”
The Funk Plan in 1940 was introduced by Hitler’s Minister of Economics. This was the concept of the economic enslavement of Europe after the military victory of the Third Reich.
The head of the Italian supervisory service reproaches Germany for the fact that she, within the framework of the European Union (by analogy with the “Funk Plan”), seeks to economically suppress her partners. In the first government, Conte Savona, on the initiative of the right “League of the North”, served as Minister for European Affairs.
—
Online:
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.
Contact us: [email protected]
The article is written and prepared by our foreign editors from different countries around the world – material edited and published by Ordo News staff in our US newsroom press.