The term “fake news” has now emerged in Greece’s political vernacular, with the leftist government over the weekend blaming the center-right main opposition party for circulating baseless, as it charges, reports of a raid of pension funds’ reserves by the Bank of Greece (BoG).
The government said the allegations were disseminated by the opposition’s “friendly” mass media.
The government side, via its preferred “non paper” mode, charged that New Democracy (ND) party is again trying to create “unrest” among the general public by falsely claiming seizures of funds’ reserves.
Reserves were, in fact, temporarily swallowed up by the general government in the late spring of 2015, at the height of then gasping negotiations with creditors. A controversial referendum was subsequently called on creditors’ terms at the time, followed by unprecedented capital controls imposed by the Tsipras government and an ultimate and resounding “no” vote in the referendum. A subsequent “yes”, by the government, was the result of last-ditch, almost 24-hour talks between the Greek side and creditors. Intense negotiations led to a third bailout agreement (memorandum) in August 2015.
Earlier on Saturday ND warned the government to avoid a repeat of the spring 2015 “pinch” of funds’ reserves.
“The government has no right to pilfer pensioners’ reserves,” a statement by ND that came in the wake of several press reports, which also prominently featured the threat of an “internal stop payment” regime by the state vis-a-vis arrears to the private sector.
ND said such a prospect would strangle the “real economy, sink the country into recession and lead to a new decrease in pensions, and higher unemployment.”
