The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Friday August 26, called for calm on the left-wing opposition parties on the wiretapping scandal which is shaking his government while pledging to “
reform intelligence
”.
"
I call for lowering the tone, let's draw a line under yesterday's mistakes
" and "
let's be united in the face of tomorrow's challenges
", launched Kyriakos Mitsotakis during a heated debate in Parliament on the wiretapping scandal.
"
We will have a difficult winter and along the Evros a new wave of invasion is already planned, this time under an alleged humanitarian pretext
", he launched in allusion to the attempts of arrivals of migrants and refugees in the Greek-Turkish border.
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The wiretapping affair exploded in Greece at the end of July after Nikos Androulakis, leader of the third parliamentary party, the socialist Pasok-Kinal, took legal action for "
attempting
" to monitor his mobile phone via the illegal software Predator.
These revelations led to two resignations in early August in the entourage of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, that of the head of intelligence (EYP) Panagiotis Kontoleon and a close adviser to the Prime Minister.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis then acknowledged that the EYP's surveillance of Nikos Androulakis was "
an error
" of this service but denied its surveillance by the Predator software, which the Greek state "
never bought or used
".
Listening in the past?
The case caused an outcry as left-wing opposition parties repeatedly demanded the resignation of Kyriakos Mitsotakis pointing out that the EYP had been placed under the prime minister in a controversial reform of the conservative government , just after his election in July 2019 for a four-year term.
“
Resign (…) because of your arrogance, democracy does not interest you
,” Alexis Tsipras, leader of the left-wing Syriza party and former prime minister, told the assembly on Friday, calling for early elections.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated that the elections would take place at the end of his government's mandate, and that "
he assumes the responsibility of leading the country during this difficult winter
".
He underlined having made his “ self-
criticism
” and that “
a skid of the EYP should not eliminate his work
” by adding that the number of illegal software like Predator, amounts to “
500 on the world market
”.
The fight against this problem "
is neither simple, nor only Greek
" and concerns other countries of the European Union.
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In Spain, a similar case of surveillance of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also led to resignations, but "
there was not a political crisis
", castigated Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He even indicated that according to "
information from journalists, he too had been the victim of surveillance
" before becoming Prime Minister in the July 2019 elections and that "
five close collaborators of the previous government of Alexis Tsipras (2015-2019) had also denounced their surveillance
.
Anastassios Telloglou, a well-known Greek investigative journalist, recently reported that there were indications that "
Kyriakos Mitsotakis' phones were not secure
and that the Greek communist party KKE had also denounced surveillance in 2018.
Intelligence reforms
On the other hand, the Prime Minister undertook to reform the intelligence services while stressing that “
any initiative (for reform) must respect the national work of the EYP
”.
"
The government had the courage to take political responsibility (...) and take all measures to correct
it", he underlined.
Among the reforms are the obligation of this service to report to the parliamentary committee on Transparency and Institutions and measures to strengthen transparency and the laws on surveillance, according to Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
At the start of the year, two Greek journalists had taken legal action denouncing their surveillance by the EYP, while the Greek daily Kathimerini (right, liberal) had mentioned the alleged surveillance of at least seven Greek politicians.