Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has warned Germany that it needs help to fight the spread of neo-nazism. The far-right Golden Dawn party is the third biggest political party in Athens' parliament.

Speaking at a joint-press conference with German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble he said that the German people, "must be proud of the fact that Nazism has been eradicated" in the country.

Schaeuble's face after Varoufakis brings up the Nazis. pic.twitter.com/pf3OpOJu9d

— Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) February 5, 2015

He continued: "When I return home tonight I shall find myself in a parliament in which the third-largest party is not a neo-Nazi party, it is a Nazi party."

Speaking on German TV the night before the meeting, Mr Varoufakis also made reference to the post-World War I economic conditions that helped Hitler to come to power.

Sitting next to Mr Schaeuble, he said: "We need the people of Germany on our side. We need the people of Germany to help us in the struggle against misanthropy."

Adding that Europe must avoid entering a 1933-style depression.

The meeting came after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it will no longer accept Greek government bonds as collateral for lending money to commercial banks.

Mr Schäuble told the press that the pair had agreed to disagree, the Greek minister added: "We didn’t even agree to disagree."