German finance minister slams comments comparing him with a Nazi

Last update - 11:40 19/03/2009

By Reuters

Tags: nazis, israel news

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck hit back on Thursday at Swiss comments comparing him to a Nazi and said he had received threatening letters from the Alpine country.

A growing war of words between Switzerland and Germany over banking secrecy intensified on Wednesday when a Swiss politician said Steinbrueck reminded him of the Nazis.

"I am getting threatening letters from Switzerland and am being bad-mouthed as a Nazi stooge," Steinbrueck told the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday.

"This is completely out of proportion and unacceptable," he added, saying the dispute arose because of a realisation in Switzerland that the country was violating international norms.

Thomas Mueller, a Swiss member of parliament, compared the minister to a "generation of Germans...who went through the streets wearing leather coats, boots and [Nazi] arm-bands".

Mueller, a member of the centre-right Christian People's Party which is part of the Swiss coalition government, said Steinbrueck's behaviour recalled the image of the "ugly German".

He was speaking during a heated debate in the Swiss parliament after Switzerland, the world's biggest offshore center, offered to relax bank secrecy in the face of a global crackdown on tax havens led by Germany.

Steinbrueck, who angered Switzerland last year by calling for a "carrot and stick" approach on the tax issue, prompted new outrage on Saturday when he compared Germany's southern neighbour to "Indians" running scared from the cavalry.

It was not the first time Germans has been compared to Nazis for campaigning against tax havens.

In September, Liechtenstein's Prince Hans-Adam II dubbed Germany a "Fourth Reich" after Berlin launched a probe into rich citizens who parked savings in the miniature state.