Die Tageszeitung, March 17, 2015
Things are heating up between Germany and Greece, again. The news Monday that Germany’s DAX index reached an all-time high — even as cash-strapped Athens is trying to scrape enough money to make a $2 billion debt payment on Friday — prompted the Berlin-based daily Tageszeitung to give Greece’s radical-left Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis a taste of his own medicine, in retaliation to what the German media is calling the “Fingergate.”
Tageszeitung“s headline “Europe gives Varoufakis the middle finger,” with a hand drawn on a picture of the European Central Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt, is a tit-for-tat move against the new Greek finance minister after the emergence of a two-year-old video in which he suggested that the then government should file for bankruptcy and let Germany foot the bill, while flipping the bird to illustrate his comment.
When he was shown the footage Sunday on one of Germany’s most popular talkshows on the state TV channel ARD, Varoufakis said he had “never given the finger ever” and that the video had been altered — though it was since confirmed as authentic.
This topped a difficult weekend for Varoufakis as the finance minister was also subjected to online mockery over a photo shoot with French magazine Paris Match, set in his luxurious home in the vicinity of Athens’ Acropolis.
ABOUT THE SOURCE: Founded in 1978 in Berlin, Die Tageszeitung, also known as “taz,” is a left-leaning newspaper famous for its tongue-in-cheek headlines.