Schaeuble faced by students: we are all piigs

FLORENCE, ITALY – Speaking at the European University Institute in Fiesole (Florence), German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said: “We have shown a lot of solidarity with Greece. Everyone knows the real problems of Greek society are in Greece and not to be found abroad.”

Faced by students in pig masks and holding banners saying “No Austerity” and “We are all PIIGS”, a reference to peripheral euro zone countries Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, Schaeuble said it was “ridiculous” to say he wanted to punish Greece.

Schäuble is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), currently serving as the Federal Minister of Finance in the Second Cabinet Merkel. From 1984 to 1991 he was a member of Helmut Kohl’s cabinet, first as Federal Minister for Special Affairs of Germany and Chief of the Chancellery and then as Federal Minister of the Interior.