Coalition government parties Nea Dimocratia of PM Antonis Samaras and PASOK of deputy Prime minister Evangelos Venizelos owe to Greece’s social security fund IKA 365,000 EUR in social contributions.
Responding to a written question from MPs, Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis said checks on unpaid contributions in June revealed that New Democracy owed just over 256,000 euros and PASOK had a debt of more than 109,000 euros.
Both parties owed the money to Greece’s main social security fund, IKA, which has seen its revenues drop by around a quarter since 2009.
The debts for both parties refer to the period 1. February 2013 – 30. April 2013 and the Labor Ministry report stand was of 28. June 2013.
In his letter to Parliament, the Labor Minister mentions that “the responsible administrators of both parties may proceed to re-arrangement of their debts or settlement resulting from new debts,” as defined by the law for outstanding contributions to social security funds.
UPDATE: Nea Dimocratia issued a statement on Monday afternoon saying it had proceeded to a debt settlement and was going to pay its debts after the second installment of 2013 funding by the state to the party.
Party debtors vs common debtors
In short: while outstanding contributions to social security funds send the police to the debtor-employer who is normally led to prosecutor in handcuffs – press release to the media incl-, Labor Minister Vroutsis politely invites ND and PASOK to settle their debts.
At the same time with the most recent laws issued by the Finance Ministry, the long arm of the state can grab the debt amount directly from the bank account of the debtor, even without previous notice. If the debtor has zero euro in his account, the state can confiscate movable and immovable assets.
But why the law apply only to common people but not to ND and PASOK? I can imagine two possibilities:
A) the bank accounts of the coalition government parties are empty
b) the two political parties own no assets (properties, cars, motorcycles, jewelry etc)
Ops! I almost forgot the third possibility. Look what happened:
The moment I wrote down the two possibilities, my smart cat raised her head from the keyboard and said in her typical nonchalant voice “it’s the government, stupid!”. As she lowered her fluffy head back to the right edge of the keyboard and stretched her body over the mouse, I think I heard her grumbling “how many employees do ND & PASOK have so that they pay 85K and 30K respectively each month, in social contributions alone?”
You don’t believe my cat said such a long and complicated sentence? You have no idea with what a cat I’m dealing here each and every day.
PS If I’m not wrong, outstanding debts to social security funds is a felony.?
