Clarifications regarding the government’s bill on bad loans and how the members of the New Left voted, Euklidis Tsakalotos gave with his post on Facebook.

He points out that New Left voted against the bill and specifies which provisions he voted “absent”.

His post in detail

“Since yesterday there has been a lot of fake news about our vote on the government’s bad debt bill, let’s get things straight:

1) The New Left voted against the bill. And he voted against it because it is so far from our own understanding of dealing with the issue of private debt, for which we have presented a comprehensive proposal in the past. With fair arrangements and protection of borrowers and principal residence. With rules of transparency and equality.

2) We voted “absent” only on the provisions that incorporate the European directive of 2021 which sets rules for the operation of servicers and which the opposition together requested from 2021. We voted “absent” because the country is obliged to incorporate the directives, but also because it takes a step in the right direction. This is also confirmed by agencies such as lawyers and borrowers. We did not vote for them because this step is cowardly and is not accompanied by a comprehensive reform of the private debt framework. Once again the government moved on its logic too little, too slowly. This is a valid review.

3) Regarding the three provisions of the roll-call vote, we voted “present” because they are provisions of the directive. Let us also say here that these provisions do not say what we read right and left. Neither do they leave the servicers without supervision from the Bank of Greece, nor do they provide for an unseized account for the servicers. Especially for the latter, an obligation of the directive is transferred that requires servicers to put the money they collect from the borrowers for the repayment of their loans in a separate protected account. The impoundment does not concern the accounts of the servicers, but the accounts into which the borrowers’ money goes. Otherwise, they would be at risk of foreclosures for the servicer’s debts. Is this what we wanted??

The New Left came to fight against the right-wing government and fight for the problems facing society. Getting caught up in debates about impressions, and incorrect ones at that, does not concern us. And it doesn’t concern anyone.”