Alternate Social Insurance Minister Dimitris Stratoulis commented on German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s criticism of his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis on Wednesday morning.”What does Mr. Schaeuble think? That Greece is a so-called banana republic, a protectorate because this is what (Antonis) Samaras and (Evangelos) Venizelos taught him?” wondered Stratoulis in an interview with private ANT1 TV.

He said “Germany’s Europe” is over and Schaeuble should not expect that his country can give instructions and other countries simply carry these out. “When Podemos is elected in Novemer things will be worse for them,” he said.

Furthermore, Stratoulis pointed to Greek priorities by underlining, “we were elected so that the Greek people could take a breather… We are not demagogues or liars, we will implement our program gradually, we said we will do what we are able to do and just wish we could do more things sooner.”