ATHENS: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday urged further European Union integration in the face of rising populism.
Steinmeier and his host also called for a “new chapter” in bilateral relations, to leave behind tensions caused by tough German demands for Greek austerity to accompany EU bailouts for Athens.
Noting Greece is on the front line of migration flows to Europe, Steinmeier said any “consensus” on migration policy “is not possible without solidarity.”
He said he shared Tsipras’ fears over the dangers that nationalism could pose to the future of the bloc.
“We must take steps to convince European citizens that is it possible to emerge, together, from crises — we must keep extreme and populist voices at bay.”
Tsipras said Greece wanted to move on from the “difficult moments between our two countries during the (financial) crisis... and the stereotypes which poison our relations.”
German insistence on financial rigour and eight years of austerity measures to accompany three EU multibillion rescues of the Greek economy soured relations in a country which has not forgotten the Nazi-era occupation during World War II.
“We are at a moment where we can open a new page in our relations,” Steinmeier said.
Relations have improved over the last three years after Tsipras’ government endorsed conditions linked to satisfying its creditors and Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel also worked closely on finding common ground on migration.
Tsipras did not mention the thorny issue of war reparations, which Greece has been seeking since the 1990s, despite the impending publication of a report by his leftist Syriza party understood to want around 270 million euros ($312 million) from Berlin.
However, Steinmeier, who arrived on the eve of the 1944 anniversary of the liberation of Athens, commented that “we ask forgiveness for atrocities” committed and “we do not want to forget the past.”
Berlin’s official position is that the issue was definitively resolved in a previous, wider post-war agreement with a number of countries, including Greece.
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Germany, Greece urge EU reboot in face of populism
Germany, Greece urge EU reboot in face of populism
- Steinmeier and his host Tsipras called for a new chapter in bilateral relations, to leave behind tensions caused by tough German demands for Greek austerity
- Tsipras did not mention the thorny issue of war reparations, which Greece has been seeking since the 1990s
Myanmar junta calls coup-protesting civil servants back to work
- Tens of thousands of public workers left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience after the junta took power in 2021
- Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military
YANGON: Myanmar’s junta called on Sunday for ex-civil servants who quit their jobs in protest over the coup five years ago to report back to work, pledging to remove absent state employees from “blacklists.”
After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.
Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands on all sides.
Last week, the junta completed a month-long election it has touted as a return to civilian rule.
But the dominant pro-military party won a walkover victory in a vote democracy watchdogs say was stacked with army allies to prolong its grip on power.
The junta’s National Defense and Security Council said civil servants who “left their workplaces without permission for various reasons” since February 2021 should “report and make contact with the offices of their former departments.”
“Following verification, employees found not to have committed any offense, as well as those who had committed offenses but have already served their sentences and whose names still appear on the blacklists, are being removed from the blacklists,” the council said in a statement published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Public employees who had been absent from work were placed on blacklists, “leading some to remain in hiding,” it added.
After the coup, in which the military ousted the elected government of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, tens of thousands of striking public workers joined the “Civil Disobedience Movement” in protest.
The junta responded with a crackdown on demonstrators, relying on tips from informers and surprise raids to round up those on strike.
Today, more than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.
Suu Kyi remains in military detention and her massively popular party has been dissolved.
The junta’s phased elections ended last Sunday without voting in one in five of Myanmar’s townships, amid fighting that has left large swaths of the country outside military control.
Parties that won 90 percent of seats in the previous election in 2020 — won in a landslide by Suu Kyi’s party — did not appear on the ballot this time, the Asian Network for Free Elections said.
After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.
Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands on all sides.
Last week, the junta completed a month-long election it has touted as a return to civilian rule.
But the dominant pro-military party won a walkover victory in a vote democracy watchdogs say was stacked with army allies to prolong its grip on power.
The junta’s National Defense and Security Council said civil servants who “left their workplaces without permission for various reasons” since February 2021 should “report and make contact with the offices of their former departments.”
“Following verification, employees found not to have committed any offense, as well as those who had committed offenses but have already served their sentences and whose names still appear on the blacklists, are being removed from the blacklists,” the council said in a statement published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Public employees who had been absent from work were placed on blacklists, “leading some to remain in hiding,” it added.
After the coup, in which the military ousted the elected government of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, tens of thousands of striking public workers joined the “Civil Disobedience Movement” in protest.
The junta responded with a crackdown on demonstrators, relying on tips from informers and surprise raids to round up those on strike.
Today, more than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.
Suu Kyi remains in military detention and her massively popular party has been dissolved.
The junta’s phased elections ended last Sunday without voting in one in five of Myanmar’s townships, amid fighting that has left large swaths of the country outside military control.
Parties that won 90 percent of seats in the previous election in 2020 — won in a landslide by Suu Kyi’s party — did not appear on the ballot this time, the Asian Network for Free Elections said.
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