It was a “public diplomacy disaster,” thinks Thorsten Benner, director of the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), a Berlin think-tank. “Germany is seen as the harsh, heartless hegemon of the euro zone, ready to bully small countries into submission.”

Away from the xenophobic hysteria aimed at desperate immigrants are people taking steps to help newcomers and promote the good things they bring. [...] But on a local level, there are thousands of people across the continent who are braving the vitriol of their peers, and filling the void left by the politicians.

German leaders cannot allow their country to be seen as being disinterested in the debate or only wanting to push through its own objectives behind closed doors. Möller suggests that the Federal Government should approach opinion leaders in the media and EU think tanks to justify their positions during the financial crisis — and to also respond directly to any criticisms.

Two days ago Australian website news.com.au ran pictures of an elderly Greek man slumped on the pavement outside a bank in Thessaloniki. He was openly weeping. James Koufos, a finance CEO based in Sydney, recognised him as Giorgos Chatzifotiadis, an old friend of the family, and decided he had to do something.

At a joint news conference at the Kremlin, the two leaders said that their discussion had focused on economic issues, including trade and tourism. They also said they talked about energy issues and Russia’s plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Turkey to Europe, in which Greece could play a crucial link.

An attempt by Greece to shift the country’s debt narrative away from austerity ran into a wall of inflexibility during a two-day trip to Germany. German officials here on Thursday, like European Central Bank officials the day before in Frankfurt, offered no sign that they considered the recent change of government in Greece to be an opportunity for a fresh start.

The Iranian cultural attaché in Athens, Mohammad-Hossein Mozaffari, said that Iran plans to honor Iranian and Greek scholars promoting cultural and scientific relations between Iran and Greece.