Greek diva Nana Mouskouri has offered to donate the pension she gets as a former member of the European parliament as part of a drive to help the country tackle a huge debt crisis, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
The donation follows widespread calls for rich Greeks to contribute to a national fund to help Athens emerge from the debt burden.
Mouskouri, who served as an MEP between 1994 and 1999, said the offer stemmed from her “duty to the country,” and stressed she was “very worried” by the bashing Greece’s image had taken.
“I do not want Greece to be treated like a cancer,” said Mouskouri, quoted by the daily Eleftherotypia.
She said she wanted to continue donating her pension “until the country emerges from the economic crisis.”
A trained opera singer, Mouskouri started out with a jazz repertoire and has sung in several languages. Her signature tunes include “White Roses from Athens,” and the love song from the cult French musical “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg.”
Greece’s deficit is more than four times the limit allowed by the European Union, and amounts to an estimated 12.7 percent of its GDP (gross domestic product).
Athens has pledged to cut the deficit by four percentage points this year but there are widespread concerns that it will fail to meet that target.
(source: News24)
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