ATHENS – Greek notaries taking part in auctions foreclosing on homes of people that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he would protect but abandoned at the demand of international creditors will have more police patrols aimed at stopping attacks on them.

The notaries have been beset with sometimes violent protests at courthouses by demonstrators furious at Tsipras and his Radical Left SYRIZA party for reneging on the Premier’s vow “not one house in the hands of banks,” before he surrendered to the Troika of the European Union-European Central Bank-European Stability Mechanism (EU-ECB-ESM) to get a third bailout, this one for 86 billion euros ($105.35 billion) he said he would never seek nor accept but did both.

Even some elements in SYRIZA said they were upset with the scene of riot police using tear gas on protesters inside a courthouse, action which led Tsipras’ government to move toward electronic online foreclosures and threaten protesters with automatic prosecution and suspension of due process for them.
Greek police said they will dispatch 144 officers in the area of notaries offices carrying out electronic auctions after the anarchist group Rouvikonas broke into one, threatened the notary and destroyed equipment in a bid to intimidate officers not to take part in the foreclosures, Kathimerini reported.

The police officers union is upset at the plan though saying it will take police away from other areas that also need protection and that the sight of more police protecting those taking part in foreclosures that Tsipras said he would stop will set off even more trouble.