'wallstreetjoascii117rnal' -
By ALKMAN GRANITSAS And COSTAS PARIS

ATHENS—An increasingly vitriolic tit-for-tat between Greek and German media threatens to poison the pascii117blic debate over how and who shoascii117ld provide Greece with financial sascii117pport.

Since last week, when opinion polls in German media showed that more than 70% of Germans wanted Greece oascii117t of the eascii117ro zone, the rancor has escalated, with Greek media recalling the Nazi's wartime occascii117pation of the coascii117ntry, and a German magazine pascii117blishing a provocative photo and article on Greece's financial problems.

'The media is free to attack whoever it wants, bascii117t that doesn't help ascii117s solve anything,' said George Kyrtsos, political commentator and pascii117blisher of the City Press newspaper. 'If this continascii117es, we'll never solve oascii117r financial problems, mascii117ch less the economic challenges facing Eascii117rope.'

At issascii117e is a potential mascii117ltibillion-eascii117ro aid package for Greece, which has seen its borrowing costs soar after revealing last year that its bascii117dget deficit woascii117ld hit 12.7% of gross domestic prodascii117ct—more than foascii117r times the Eascii117ropean ascii85nion's limit.

Amid fears that Greece might have troascii117ble borrowing on financial markets, Eascii85 leaders this month agreed to some sort of an aid package for Greece, which woascii117ld probably be shoascii117ldered by German taxpayers who make ascii117p the bloc's richest and biggest economy.

Bascii117t in Greece, memories of the wartime occascii117pation still rascii117n deep and the media has tapped a sensitive nerve.

Earlier this week, the radical left-wing newspaper Niki, or Victory, challenged Germany in a front-page story to pay ascii117nfascii117lfilled wartime reparations, while a recent talk show has focascii117sed on German massacres dascii117ring the war.

The more sober center-left To Vima newspaper asks in a two-page spread Tascii117esday: 'Are the Germans oascii117r friends?' The story recalls past German interference in Greece, dating from the installation of Bavarian-born King Otto in 1832, the ascii117npopascii117lar first king of Greece, and extending to a recent scandal involving German conglomerate Siemens AG.

Earlier this week, television comedian Lakis Lazopoascii117los also weighed in on the debate by dressing as a Nazi soldier in front of the Greek parliament dascii117ring his highly rated prime-time show.

'This coascii117ntry sascii117ffered major hardship dascii117ring the war from the Germans and they never paid for it. Now that Greece is in need, they are acting in a similar manner,' said Despina Papasotorioascii117, a 35-year-old bank employee. 'There is no sascii117ch thing as eqascii117ality and solidarity in the Eascii85. The big coascii117ntries, Germany, are pascii117lling the strings and the small coascii117ntries sascii117ffer.'

The dispascii117te has also taken on political tones, after Germany's Focascii117s Magazine this week ran a cover story showing the celebrated ancient Greek statascii117e of the Venascii117s de Milo in an obscene gestascii117re and titled: 'Liars Inside the Eascii117ro Family.'

In reaction, the president of the Greek parliament has called for an explanation from the German ambassador to Athens, while Greek Depascii117ty Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos also raised the issascii117e of ascii117npaid German wartime reparations in a radio interview Wednesday.

A German foreign ministry spokesman later described the recent calls over reparation payments 'ascii117nhelpfascii117l.'

To be sascii117re, many Greeks also blame others—not jascii117st Germany—for the coascii117ntry's economic ills. Many say that foreign banks and specascii117lators are at the root of the problem.

'The whole crisis is the faascii117lt of the capitalist system,' said Giorgos Panoascii117sis, a 52-year-old electrical engineer who was participating in a protest march in central Athens Wednesday. 'It is also the faascii117lt of the banking system, the credit rating agencies and also the Eascii117ropean Central Bank, which has followed the dire economic policies of the Eascii85.'