The talks of the Irish bankers published in The Irish Independent newspaper caused severe criticism and disapproval from Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. Jests about German depositors and senior executives’ behavior as a whole were treated by Merkel as the insult of all labor people; she also termed such activities as the measures doing harm to the democracy.
The executive officers from the Anglo Irish Bank were reasoning that the crisis of 2008 had been bringing them more and more millions daily and the money given out by the government because of the tight economic situation in the country would never be refunded. Such a discourse turned out to be a juicy scandal. It is worth reminding that funding of the banking system cost Irish citizens €30 billion at the time. Besides, in the course of the talks, one of the senior executives was making fun of the major German depositors, singing the line from Germany’s state anthem «Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles» («Germany is above all things») that means the symbol status of the Third Reich. At the present day, the line has been removed from the national anthem.
The incident was given wide publicity all over the world including Germany. In the eyes of German citizens, such issues are discussed not only by the bankers from Ireland, but also by financial executives from lots of other countries.
