It was barely ten years ago that the Greek capital had to be put into a kind of state of emergency in order to guarantee the safety of the German Chancellor.

Before the arrival of Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks in Athens in October 2012, the police administration banned all demonstrations and political gatherings in central Athens for a period of thirteen hours.

The right of assembly was also restricted for the area around Athens airport - in the interests of public order and “social and economic life”, as was communicated in support of the statement.

Michael Martens

Correspondent for Southeast European countries based in Vienna.

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In October 2021, security measures that go beyond the usual level will hardly be necessary.

Greece's over-indebtedness crisis has been postponed rather than resolved, but the former heat has given way to the Greek-German debates.

One topic was the austerity policy imposed on Greece by its donors - in the Greek perception above all by Germany - but also during Merkel's last visit to the former epicenter of the euro crisis.

Merkel said at a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday that she was always aware of the “unreasonable demands” of the Greek population during the euro crisis.

Relationships were "quite alive"

However, Merkel also made it clear that she continues to believe that the politics of the time were correct. The most difficult phase was the phase in which "it was about the stability of the euro". During this time it became clear that the euro zone was initially not prepared for the challenges that the common currency had to face as a result of the crisis that had become evident in Greece: “I think we were all very shocked at the time at how vulnerable the euro was to speculation outside, ”said Merkel. Initially, this affected more indebted countries as well as those "which, as far as certain reforms were concerned, had not yet implemented everything". In doing so she chose a diplomatic paraphrase forthat Greece had gained access to the eurozone by fraudulent budgetary data and then reported false deficit figures for years.

Relations between Greece and Germany have been "quite lively" over the past ten years, Merkel summed up on Friday.

This was also a cautious formulation for the fact that German-Greek relations sank to a low point unknown in post-war Europe at the first high point of the Greek debt crisis around 2012.

Athens tabloids printed photomontages of the Chancellor wearing a swastika armband, along with the headline “Memorandum Makes Free” and similar references to National Socialism.

Used for Greece in migration crisis

To speak of today's Germany as the “Fourth Reich” became socially acceptable well into the middle of the political class. Merkel is largely unpopular in Greece to this day, even if her behavior during the migration crisis in 2015 and 2016 earned her respect from part of the population. Because the Chancellor has always advocated not leaving Greece alone with this crisis.

But for Merkel and Mitsotakis it was not just about coming to terms with the past.

Even today's relationships are by no means free of conflict.

Athens accuses Berlin of exacerbating the conflict in the Aegean by delivering submarines and other armaments to Turkey.

On Friday, Merkel cited the agreement with Turkey to control irregular migration from 2016 as a good example of the need to try “to work with Turkey”.

It is important to “clarify the most difficult questions in a dialogue”.

According to Merkel, there are “mutual dependencies” between Turkey and the EU.