Worried for their own survival during the Covid-19 pandemic, people in Greece who owe money to the state or banks and can’t pay will be eligible for bankruptcy only if everything they own is taken from them.
The New Democracy government, praised for its response to handling the crisis, has ended the Katseli’s Law that provided relief for people who couldn’t pay their bills because of almost a decade of harsh austerity measures.
Those included big pay cuts, tax hikes, slashed pensions and worker firings and has already seen many lose their homes to foreclosure after the former ruling Radical Left |SYRIZA, with then-premier Alexis Tsipras breaking his vow of “not one home in the hands of banks,” let them seize properties.
Now New Democracy’s plan is let debtors be free of what they owe banks and the state and other creditors two years after they file for bankruptcy and 12 months after the procedure ends, but only have had all their assets liquidated after a court decision, according to the new bankruptcy code blueprint Kathimerini has seen.
The government wants the new framework to be ready in the next couple of months under a plan designed to appease Greece’s creditors, the Troika of the European Union-European Central Bank-European Stability Mechanism (EU-ECB-ESM) and banks.
It will replace the Katseli Law, the main residence protection status and the clauses about the bankruptcy of enterprises, the paper said, pushed through quietly while people were distracted with the fear of Covid-19.
The Katseli Law designed to protect people was too lengthy, the government said, as it could take up to 15 years to complete bankruptcy procedures and banks want their hands on properties and people’s asset faster,.
That doesn’t include New Democracy and its former coalition partner the now-defunct PASOK Socialists who owe some €250 million in bad loans that aren’t being paid and with a former Conservative government giving immunity to the bank officers who approved the payouts to the parties.
Original Story: The National Herald | TNH Staff
Photo: Photo by Lotus Head /FreeImages.com
Edition: Prime Yield