I CANNOT say I understood the half-baked solution the legislature came up with on Friday regarding the row with the president over foreclosures, but will have to accept that the new Diko proposal will not be as catastrophic for the banking system as the law of July 12 which was vetoed by Prez Nik.

Disy obviously reached a compromise with Diko whereby the latter accepted the president’s veto and, in exchange the former, backed a new less effective law drafted by Junior’s party in an attempt to save some face. It had, after all, voted for the original law and its deputies led the campaign for the protection of people who were not repaying their loans.

In Kyproulla, people that refuse to honour the loan contracts they signed and do not repay their loans have the status of victims being persecuted by the greedy and evil banks that, quite unreasonably, want their money back and are ruthlessly resorting to the law in an effort to recover it so as to avoid bankruptcy.

It is very much a case of good versus evil, as the commie mouthpiece, Haravghi never tires of pointing out. “The policies of the banks are leading to mass foreclosures of the primary residence, while the government, with the veto of the law supports the banks instead of the borrowers,” it wrote a few days ago.

As always, it omitted to inform us the actual number of the mass foreclosures. If they were being done on a mass scale, I am sure it would have given the number.

THERE WOULD also have been more victims of the mass foreclosures demonstrating outside the legislature on Friday when the president’s veto was being discussed. There were probably more policemen than demonstrators representing the Movement Against Foreclosures and the Movement for the Protection of Borrowers.

Where were all the victims of the banks? The few that did show up held banners demanding ‘Cyprus without evictions’ and ‘Housing is a sacred right and not merchandise.’ The parties, with their idiotic populism have made people believe they have a sacred right not repay their loans on the house they are living in (primary residence), a right many are exercising to the full.

It is not only home-owners that parties want to protect, but also small businesses. ‘Professional premises’ are also protected against foreclosures, which, in effect, gives the business not repaying its loan an advantage over its competitor that is foolishly repaying it or paying rent.

That banks are often unreasonable and heavy-handed in the negotiations for restructuring of loans is probably correct, but like any business they are interested in the bottom line and not in pursuing socially sensitive policy. The bank that followed the socially sensitive business model, the co-op, is bankrupt, having left an €8 billion debt to the taxpayer – the only real victim of our caring and compassionate political parties.

ALL THIS is perfectly in line with our national mentality of never taking responsibility for our actions and decisions. It is not the fault of an individual if he took a loan that he could not repay because he wanted a house he could not afford or if he borrowed money to buy a flash car with no intention of paying it back. The banks were exclusively to blame.

The bank had a share of the blame for giving loans so easily, without bothering to check the borrower’s finances, but let’s face it, no bank ever dragged people off the street and put a gun to their head to force them to sign a housing loan. The so-called victim, ultimately, had a big say in the matter and the bank would not have sued him if he decided not take a loan.

In Kyproulla the problems we create are always blamed on someone else because we are the eternal victims of banks, roads, big business, Nato, Britain, the US, society, the weather, the police, the referee, the linesman etc.