Police intensify objections to foreclosures duty

In a letter to Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Toskas, the union of Hellenic Police officers (POASY) on Wednesday underlined its opposition to a government decision to boost security for notarial firms involved in controversial property foreclosures.

In the letter, which it also sent to Hellenic Police chief Constantinos Tsouvalas, POASY suggested that the government’s foreclosures policy might manage to boost the country’s banks but that it was ultimately unjustifiable and that it was trying to shirk the responsibility for its social impact.

“So in order to protect yourselves… you artfully roll the problem over and transform it from a purely political problem to a ‘police’ issue,” the union said in the letter.

POASY added that obliging officers to help with foreclosures would also “drain” many police services in Attica and compromise the force’s key mission, which, it said, “is nothing other than defending the life, honor and property of Greek citizens.”

The union’s reaction is to a government decision to detach 150 officers from their regular duties to guard the offices of notaries involved in conducting property foreclosures.

One of those offices was targeted this week by anarchists protesting the resumption of property foreclosures.