GREXIT: Local Greeks fear EU want to RIP AWAY culture and turn them to ROBOTS

Mounting national debts resulted in Greece being bailed out by the European Central Bank to the tune of €289 billion, money which could take the country decades to repay. Anthony Papadimitriou, who once supported the EU but is now is staunchly opposed, told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight: “There is no equal voice of the member states anymore. Germany is the only major country. All the decision making is affected, 100 percent, by the German interests. And you see the results now that citizens are against Europe and this is bad.”

Germany is seen as leading the instigation of the series of unpopular austerity measures in Greece after the government turned to the EU and International Monetary Fund in 2010 for help with their crippling debt.

In return for three bailout packages, the Greeks implemented unpopular tax hikes, falling wages and spending cuts.

Speaking to shop workers in Plaka, Athens, one person said: “I work in a shop here in the centre. The European Union told us ‘you have to do this and you have to do that, you must do this’.

“But right now the economy here is Greece is very low.

“My country is not the way that I want it to be.”

Another person added: “I don’t feel positive about the European Union.

“All the history of Greece, the culture, the way of life – they want to get rid of it and make all the Greek people like Robots.”

When asked about Brexit, she said: “I think they did the best for them.”

The comments come as Prime Minister Theresa May battles for support from MPs on her controversial Brexit deal.

On Monday night, the Prime Minister attempted yesterday to rally her divided party behind an amendment which seeks to break the impasse over the Irish border backstop.

1922 Committee Chairman Graham Brady has tabled an amendment to Mrs May’s Brexit deal to scrap the Irish backstop, which is designed to avoid a hard-border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

At a packed meeting of Tory MPs on the eve of a series of knife-edge Commons votes, Mrs May urged Conservative colleagues to back her in her battle to deliver Brexit.

Tory eurosceptics led by Jacob Rees-Mogg have vowed to oppose the plan, casting major doubt over whether it will receive the support needed to pass.

The amendment would replace the contentious Irish border backstop terms with “alternative arrangements to avoid a hard border” in a bid to win over Brexiteers who are opposed to the current terms in Mrs May’s deal.

source: express.co.uk