Filippos Fortomas, New Democracy MP for the Cyclades and Chairman of the Parliament’s Special Permanent Committee on Greeks Abroad, spoke about the contacts he had as a member of the Greek delegation that recently visited the German Bundestag, following an initiative of the Hanns Seidel Stiftung Foundation, and the conclusions drawn, in an interview with Voice of Greece radio and the program “Our Global Voice” with Dimitris Kontogiannis.
Mr. Fortomas said that migration and energy were at the center of the talks, while German politicians expressed their surprise at the course of the Greek economy, which they had not expected. Asked about the issue, Mr. Fortomas pointed out that what struck the Greek MPs was that the federal government did not have aggregate data on migrant returns from Germany to host countries such as Greece, since each federal state follows its own approach. He estimated that not as many returns have taken place as could have. He also noted that Germany maintains a welfare state and continues to provide benefits to refugees and migrants, something that has been criticized by the hardline party Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has adopted a tough anti-immigration stance.
Asked about the attitude of their German counterparts on Greek-Turkish relations, Mr. Fortomas stressed that they appear to balance between, on the one hand, Germany’s major economic interests in Turkey and the presence of a large Turkish minority in their country, and on the other hand, the sympathy they hold toward Greece because of history and the Greek community living there. As he noted, the German MPs were surprised to learn that the “calm waters” in Greek-Turkish relations have been disturbed, with the Greek side explaining the reasons.