Controversial Archbishop Ambrosios Verbally Attacks Schaeuble and Merkel

Philip Chrysopoulos – Greek Reporter – 14/3/15

Archbishop Ambrosios of Kalavryta created controversy after launching a verbal attack on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble over their harsh stance against Greece in the bailout negotiations.

The archbishop is a supporter of new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his government and he often shares his opinions on his website.

However, this time he sparked controversy by calling the German finance minister “a man with an inferiority complex who hates everyone who doesn’t need to be in a wheelchair.”

At the same time, he characterizes the German chancellor as “ruthless,” “grim” and “unsmiling.” He further describes her as “merciless,” “strict” and “aggressive” and wonders how unhappy her husband and children must be.

He further says that she is partly justified for her behavior because she grew up in the harsh communist regime of Eastern Germany, therefore she lived in fear for a big part of her life. She also lived in poverty and deprivation, something that made her hateful towards society. Thereby, the austerity she has imposed on Europe is a consequence of her upbringing, Ambrosios claims.

Further in the text, Ambrosios mentions the 1,300 males the German occupation forces executed in Kalavryta in 1943 and the plundering of houses, banks and churches, followed by the burning of the town. He brings up the issue of the German war reparations and urges the Tsipras government to follow through and demand what is due for Greece.

The archbishop also praises Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis as a brave man who took the required hard stance in the debt negotiations with Greece’s lenders and concludes by saying that he would prefer to see Greeks poor but proud instead of rich and humiliated.

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