German magazine’s obscene Venus de Milo cover causes outrage in Greece

LONDON - Infuriated over a German magazine cover showing the famed Venus de Milo making an obscene finger gesture, a consumer rights group in Greece has called for a complete boycott of German products and stores.

In its latest issue, German magazine Focus showed the famous armless classical statue, now at the Louvre, raising her middle finger under the headline “Cheats in the euro family” - suggesting that Greece had deliberately misled EU peers to cheat its way into the eurozone, The Scotsman reports.

“Greeks are no crooks; we want the German government to condemn this most improper publication,” the paper quoted George Lakouritis, president of Greece’s Consumer Institute (Inka), as saying.

Inka distributed leaflets in central Athens and in front of German-owned consumer electronics store Media Markt, urging Greeks to heed the boycott.

“The falsification of a statue of Greek history, beauty and civilisation, from a time when there (in Germany] they were eating bananas on trees is impermissible and unforgivable,” Inka stated.

The Venus cover has caused an outrage in Greece, which is seeking support from fellow EU countries such as Germany to cope with a debt crisis that threatens to destabilise the euro.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has so far deflected appeals to promise aid to heavily indebted Greece.

Germany’s ambassador to Greece, Wolfgang Schultheiss, said he regretted that press reports caused offence.

“Germany is firmly on Greece’s side. The ambassador’s statements were not satisfactory,” Mr Lakouritis said. “If you have such friends, what do you need enemies for?,” Schultheiss said, after eing summoned by Greece’s parliament speaker Filippos Petsalnikos. (ANI)