SPD leader, current leader of the opposition in the German Bundestag Parliment, former German Vice-Chancellor and former German Foreign Minister – Frank-Walter Steinmeier – has spoken out against a boycott of games of the European Football Championship in Ukraine.
Sporting competitions should not be placed at the service of politics he said adding that the European Championship are being held and should simply take place in the Ukraine as planned. He also thinks that the German team players themselves should be given the opportunity to give their own opinion and should not be prevented from airing their views on the matter.
Steinmeier did criticize the handling of the of the jailed opposition leader Tymoshenko by the Ukrainian government in Kiev saying she should be held in acceptable conditions and not mistreated.
In 2008 Steinmeier strongly opposed calls for a proposed Olympics boycott in Beijing which came from various quarters of the EU and elsewhere and was and still of the opinion that boycotts are counter-productive.
The United States Government boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the then Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and were at the time strongly supported in this boycott call by the then UK Government.
Now 32 years later these same two nations are themselves caught in an Afghan quagmire entirely of their own making – should now not the same rules apply and should not the London Olympics be boycotted? http://www.boycottlondonolympics.com/
India did threaten to boycott the up-coming London games and Iran has already confirmed it will do so - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/mar/01/india-boycott-olympic-opening-ceremony
The present Conservative UK government is itself licking its wounds after the British electorate severely ‘boycotted’ them in local elections yesterday and Mr William Hague, the usually irritatingly dim and half-witted UK foreign secretary, wasfor once more muted and said the ‘ government was monitoring the situation’ and would at some later date come to a decision on whether ministers would attend Euro 2012.
In other words he seems to have learnt the old adage that men who live in glass houses should not throw stones …. and please nobody boycott the London Olympics!
Meanwhile the opportunist Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt – increasingly boycotted by Swedish citizens – plans to boycott of the Championship in Ukraine. This probably has more to do with a domestic political scandal wherein his former defence minister Sten Tolgfors was forced to resign last month in the wake of disclosure of secret Swedish plans to build an arms factory in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.boycottlondonolympics.com/
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easternapproaches/2012/05/ukraine-and-europe?fsrc=gn_ep
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NO TO ANY EURO 2012 BOYCOTT!!! Former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and SPD leader speaks out against any boycott of games of the European Football Championship in Ukraine – by contributor Mr Filip van der Plas from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
Tags: boycott the 2012 London Olympic, boycottlondonolympics.com, India did threaten to boycott the up-coming London games, Loser William Hague, NO EURO 2012 BOYCOTT!!!, NO TO ANY EURO 2012 BOYCOTT!!!, Steinmeier opposes boycott, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt boycotted, Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt opportunist, United States Government boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics
