Germany’s Merkel due in post-crisis Greece on 2-day visit

By ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Germany’s outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel is due in Greece Thursday evening for a two-day visit to the country whose financial crisis marked much of her tenure and Germany’s relationship with Europe. Merkel arrives on a Greek national holiday marking the day in 1940 when Athens rejected an ultimatum by Fascist Italy to allow Axis troops to enter Greece. The decision led to Greece entering World War II, pitting it against a far stronger adversary and eventually to a brutal occupation by Nazi Germany. Greek-German relations were often thorny in past years, particularly during Greece’s decade-long financial crisis, during which Germany was the largest single contributor to international bailouts for Greece, but also the main driver behind the austerity imposed in return for rescue loans.