“You must inform the society about what we are doing and stop the spreading of fakes news by the media,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the board of the Hellenic Banking Association at a meeting in his office on Monday.
Tsipras was pointing out at the furore in mainstream media outlets and anti-evictions movement that claim the banks proceed with auctioning first residence of poor people who are unable to pay their debts.
“The best thing we can do is to work together closely,” Tsipras told bankers and urged them to open their “drawers, take out the cases of big-scale dodgers and set priorities.”
This will give the right message to society and create consensus for the restructure of the banks’ portfolios, he added.
At the same time, Tsipras asked the bankers for support and dismiss “the fake news the media produce about the auctions.”
“Go ahead and tell the truth, defend yourselves and the banking system against the media that produce fake news. You finance them anyway, you cannot tolerate the lies,” Tsipras said characteristically hinting at the advertisement of the banking sector to media.
“We are determined to confront the phenomenon of big-scale debtors and at the same time do whatever is possible for the economy to recover by restoring the real role of financial institutions,” the prime minister told bankers and urged them “I am sure that you will be the first to restore reality in terms of informing the public about what we really want to do and what is really happening.”
Tsipras said that a watch dog should be set in order to have a clear picture of which cases should take priority.
Tsipras claimed that there is legal protection of the first residence of “poor people.” However, media close to main opposition party have claimed that people have lost their homes for debts of 30,000 or 45,000 euros in electronic auctions. The government has repeatedly said that the first residence is protected for mortgages worth below 300,000 euros.
The problem with the Truth vs Fake News in the auctioned homes lies somewhere between weak pro-government media and powerful opposition media.
For example, a property-owner may lose his home due to debts to third persons and not to the banks.
The more one digs the more complicated the truth becomes. It is up to the government to shed light to such issue and less to the bankers, IMHO.
