Tzanakopoulos says foreclosure protection bill satisfies creditors

Following strong disagreements with creditors over the level of protection from foreclosure of debtors' primary residence, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos outlined the elements of the bill finally tabled by the government in Parliament on 26 March.

He said the draft legislation will come to a vote within the week.

"We believe there is no problem in our relations with them [creditors]," Tzanakopoulos said at a press briefing today.

He said the arrangement meets the government's dual aim of protecting from foreclosure lower income families' residences and achieving the swiftest possible resolution of the non-performing loans in banks' portfolios.

According to the spokesman, the new institutional framework for the first time protects not only vulnerable debtors with a home loan, but also freelance professionals who have received business loans, and it will offer instalment subsidies for debtors who qualify to participate in the programme.

Attack on New Democracy

Tzanakopoulos lambasted main opposition New Democracy arguing that given the ensured protection its stance is a "monument of political amorality and audacity", as ND had taken no measures to protect debtors' primary residence"  before SYRIZA came to power in January, 2015.

He said that this lack of protection was a strategic choice of both New Democracy and Pasok because "in the world of corrupt vested interests which they defend, the weak and vulnerable are not entitled to protection. On the contrary, they believe that protection involves only the powerful, villas,  and vacation homes with swimming pools which through tailor-made legal provisions  were perpetually protected, and there are many such examples," Tzanakopoulos declared.