Post date: Jun 17, 2012 3:5:57 PM
BERLIN, GERMANY (JUNE 17, 2012) (REUTERS - Music has no answers as to how to deal with Greece, but it can help to find, "a new look at our lives and therefore also at the questions which trouble us in everyday life," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in Berlin on Sunday (June 17).
Music can help to find a new look at our lives and troubling everyday questions like what to do with Greece, says German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, hours before the outcome of Greece's parliamentary elections which could determine the future of the debt-ridden country in the euro zone currency bloc.
Schaeuble was speaking on the sidelines of a classical concert organised by his finance ministry and intended to "underline the importance of music in our society", as Greeks voted in an election that could decide whether their heavily indebted country stays in the euro zone or heads for the exit.
"I don't think that music, art or culture can give us answers to practical questions like what we are going to do or not do with Greece," said Schaueble who told the same audience how he likes to attend classical concerts.
"Even after 5 p.m. we won't know exactly, no matter how the elections turn out," Schaeuble said, adding; "But I do believe that culture can help us -- and music in particular -- to find a new look at our lives and therefore also at the questions which trouble us in everyday life."
In an election fought over a punishing austerity package demanded by international lenders as the price of keeping Greece afloat, opinion polls showed the radical leftist SYRIZA party, which wants to scrap the deal, running neck and neck with the conservative New Democracy, which broadly backs it.