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The people who suffered the bankruptcy of the private insurance company Aspis Pronia, which was closed in October 2009, blocked the center of Athens in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the new draft law on guaranteeing the citizens’ investments in the private insurance sector was on first reading inside the parliament. Protesters shouted “Give our money back” and “Thieves go to jail”. To enhance the effect, they brought four empty coffins with the inscription “Death of Private Insurance” on their shutters.

The proposal set forth in the draft, prepared by the Deputy Minister of Finance Filipos Sahinidis, is to find a successor to the bankrupt company. The new insurance company will acquire the assets and losses of Aspis Pronia undertaking to cover at least 70% to 80% of obligations to policyholders. The government offered the compensation money to come from the newly established mutual insurance fund in which insurance companies and their customers will pay 1.5 percent (each party will pay 0.75 percent). The time it will take to gather the necessary resources to the newly established fund could reach even ten years. Another government proposal is the successor company to borrow from the state a low interest loan equal to the amount required to cover the damage of the people ruined by Aspis. In either case, the state assumes no responsibility to cover the damages of the citizens it had to protect.

Victims commented that this decision is outrageous and unacceptable for them and for insurers in the country. “This proposal is unconstitutional first and second it is inapplicable because no insurance company will take such a risk in these circumstances,” said especially for GRReporter the insurer Nikos Sikeridis. He was an insurance agent at Aspis Pironia and is currently a member of the Union of the damaged by the insurance company.  

The second option is the things to remain hanging in the air and go to court, which will decide who is right and who is wrong, if there is no successor company. This option is not acceptable either according to Nikos Sikeridis, because cases can drag on for decades and most of the damaged people may not even wait for the outcome of the case.

The Union insists the Government to assume its obligations and pay 100% of the amounts due to the privately insured, because the state has failed to properly operate as a controlling body and prevent the closure of Aspis Pronia, although the company was giving warnings of disloyalty for years. “The state assumes no responsibility for what happened with this bill, although the fact of inaction and lack of effective control is complicit in the looting of the insured citizens’ money,” said the general secretary of the Union Kostadinos Varavanis.