“The government is on the side of funds and servicers, serving their interests rather than defending people who tried but could not cope. They are not bad payers; they are people who have fought hard in life and are waiting to reach a settlement.”
Nikos Androulakis set out this position at a meeting of the Political Council of PASOK, referring to Article 23 of a bill being legislated by the Ministry of Finance. Under the provision, he said, “a private debt-restructuring agreement signed by a debtor, based on a claim calculated unilaterally by the creditor, will be considered an enforceable title. This will allow the fund, if it believes the agreement has been breached for even a short time, to seize and auction the assets of debtors and guarantors without prior verification of the debt, a payment order or a court ruling.”
Mr Androulakis said that “Article 23” turns a debt-settlement tool such as the out-of-court mechanism into a trap and a means of coercion for borrowers, and concluded: “The government has one choice: withdraw ‘Article 23’ immediately.”
He also took aim at the Tsipras government, without naming it, saying that “in 2017, some people sold ‘red’ loans to funds without rules or criteria, and today others are making the framework worse instead of improving it.”
Mr Androulakis also reiterated the need for political change: “On one side, citizens see a government that talks about ‘stability’, but the only things that are stable are high prices, corruption and impunity. Opposing it is an official opposition that identifies what is happening and, at the same time, proposes rules and institutions to change Greece, along with a commitment that, as a government with a mandate from the people, it will put them into practice to improve the lives of Greek women and men.”
The opposition as a whole has objected to the absence of representatives of funds and servicers from today’s discussion of the bill in Parliament’s Finance Committee, despite their having accepted the invitation to attend.
“What are you doing about Kasidiaris?”
Mr Androulakis also referred to “Kasidiaris’s provocative event on the national anniversary” in Thessaloniki, saying:
“Not a single New Democracy minister said a word about Kasidiaris’s insult to the Greek people. No one felt the responsibility or the need to say anything publicly. What does ‘we disagree with Kasidiaris’s ideas’ mean? What are you doing?
“On the one hand, pollsters are gauging his support; on the other, there is a Supreme Court ruling that bars a front party, yet you allow him to stage a parade of hatred, intolerance, extremism and racism. Will the state do anything?”
He added forcefully: “Kasidiaris cannot have written in support of Hitler, the Security Battalions and Auschwitz, with the internet full of photographs of swastikas, and then be allowed to stage this affront on 28 October. Where is the state to defend democracy and History? And instead of defending these, it fired tear gas at peaceful demonstrators in an area 20 minutes from the site of Kasidiaris’s rally.”