SYRIZA Leader Tsipras Discusses Article 221

Tsipras declared, "Article 221 should be withdrawn...It is not just against the social security system itself, it is deeply antidemocratic and includes antidemocratic provisions. This article annuls accumulated social insurance rights and limits the options for the insured", as reported by ANA-MPA.

Tsipras further commented that he considers it an "elimination of the social insurance", and does not view it as consolidation nor restructuring. The SYRIZA leader blamed Prime Minister Samaras of acting as the "moral and physical instigator of the spoliation of the funds and the uniformed personnel's lump sum".

The SYRIZA chief added that the current government, "imposes the privatization of supplementary pensions and lump sum benefits, in another special favour to the private capital. It primes the entry of private insurance companies in the second pillar of the social security system".