Nana Mouskouri Changes Tune on Greece Situation in Interview With Austrian Paper

Greek renowned singer Nana Mouskouri gave an interview to Austrian Wiener Zeitung, occasioned by her upcoming concert in Staathalle concert hall in Vienna on Friday, April 27. The anniversary concert celebrates 50 years after the German-speaking CD release of Nana Mouskouri’s “White Rose from Athens.”

The Austrian journalist embellished his article with many references to the Greek singer’s life and artistic career. Apart from her artistic achievements, Mouskouri refers to the current political situation in Greece, as well as to her position as member of the European Parliament for five years until 1999.

In regards to her international political career, she said that she abandoned the European post because she disagreed with the Parliament’s decisions. According to Mouskouri, Europeans did not take into account the fact that the states are pretty different from each other, mostly culturally. “The conditions are not the same for someone living in Greece and for someone living in Germany,” adds the famous singer.

Mouskouri seems to have forgotten what she stated in German newspapers less than six months ago during her concerts in the country. She had then commented that Germany’s policy towards Greece is absolutely justified, since the debt of Greece is pretty high.

But now Mouskouri has changed her tune, and believes that artists have a key role in society. In her opinion, they have the duty to support people, that’s why she does not hesitate to blame politicians for the debt crisis and its consequences.”They only care about money and governance,” adds the Greek international singer and former politician.

Is it a public apology, then, because Nana Mouskouri marked Greeks as lazy back then, and told the Germans that she fully agreed with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decisions?

“Greece needs Europe,” she said in an interview on December 2011. “Not the opposite.”

It seems as if Mouskouri has forgotten her old statements on the bad aspect of Greece and now says that headlines, such as “Bankrupt Greeks,” hurt her feelings about her homecountry. Her last attempt to placate the Greeks’ disapproval of hers, especially now that she has not planned any concerts in Germany in the near future, is the confession that her compatriots are kind, hospitable and hard-working people.

“Greece is the home of Democracy, but for four centuries there was Turkish occupation in Greece, after that a civil war, a king, a dictatorship and many other maladies.” As a consequence, “Greece never managed to realize what true Democracy is.”