Angry at Germany, Greeks Shun Its Cars

ATHENS - Since 2010, I have covered several mass anti-austerity demonstrations in Athens, some of which turned violent. In each of them, there was a palpable and disturbing anti-German subplot. Flags with swastikas were burned, as were placards depicting German chancellor Angela Merkel clad in a Nazi uniform. I remember the crowd in Syntagma Square, facing the Parliament building, erupting in a cheer when a very old man with a shock white hair arrived. It was Manilos Glezos, the Second World War resistance hero; he had risked his life by climbing the Acropolis in 1941 to tear down the German swastika flag. Given the hostility towards the German-inspired austerity programs that have kept Greece in deep recession for five years, you could imagine that German products have not been big sellers in the country.

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