SYRIZA: New Democracy is not telling all there is to know on bank negotiations

Main opposition party SYRIZA's Nikos Pappas, responsible for economic policy and Giorgos Tsipras, the party's deputy for economic policy, on Saturday released a joint statement criticizing the government’s negotiations with banks towards reducing financial transaction costs as "a mere show staged for the purposes of a public communications strategy."

The two SYRIZA politicians said that ruling New Democracy is "hiding its true agenda" on the issue, concealing details concerning project Hercules, which is a plan to provide some 9 billion euros in state guarantees to help banks reduce their debt, buffered by 40 billion euros of taxpayers money.

They also said that what the government is actually doing is legislating a so-called 'financial asylum' for bank executives who were dispensing loans to specific companies, political parties and high-profile personalities of the political world in an irregular manner.

Another criticism Pappas and Tsipras aired was the lack of clarifications on amendments on corporate bankruptcy code, as well as the government’s potential bypassing of banks' surcharges on loans that carried state guarantees, worth some 3.5 billion euros.

Finally, it was pointed out that "banks ought to restore their profitability without burdening consumer products such as credit and debit cards, especially when their operating costs have dropped significantly due to electronic transactions."

"New Democracy should stop trying to fool society," the statement concluded.