Has Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as assured by the weekly Document, monitored his own government? The leader of New Democracy, the main right-wing party in Greece, strongly denied these allegations, denouncing a “incredible lie”.
“paranoid state”
The Sunday newspaper, close to the main opposition party Syriza, says it has its sources from Greek intelligence (EYP), which operates the Predator spyware. Its editor, Kostas Vaxevanis, persisted and signed, Monday, November 7, in hearing before the judges of the “Supreme Court”. It makes the head of government the ” brain “ who “block all surveys” on a wiretapping network on 33 personalities including politicians and their relatives, businessmen and artists.
Among them, we would find several members of the government (foreign affairs, defence, finance, development, work, tourism) but also the former Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras or the shipowner Vangelis Marinakis, boss of the football clubs Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest.
Stalled investigation
Kostas Vaxevanis, whom the government spokesman describes as “national defamer”, would not be his first revelation: it was he who in 2012 brought to light a list of Greeks holding accounts in Switzerland. He denounces today a “paranoid state” and promises to soon reveal other names of people spied on by Predator, capable, like the Israeli program Pegasus, of intruding into smartphones leaving almost no trace. The program gives the possibility to access not only even encrypted messages, but also to activate the microphone or the camera.
“Where is the judicial inquiry? », asks Socialist MEP Nikos Androulakis, who filed a complaint in July for having also been the prey of Predator, when the scandal began to surface. The European Parliament, which sent a commission to Athens last week, also demands an investigation “urgent and thorough”. The Union of Greek Journalists, for its part, judged that this case “deals with the confidence of citizens in the functioning of institutions and threatens democracy”.
Defense strategy
On the left, the opposition denounces a « Watergate grec ». The leader of Syriza, former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, is also asking for light to be shed, brandishing the threat of a motion of censure. But for the time being, the majority remains firmly anchored on the right, to the point that Kyriakos Mitsotakis challenges him to take action. The head of government wanted to regain control since COP27 in Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt. His defense strategy is to make the scandal a larger problem against which he intends to become the pioneer.
“I recognize that in Europe we have a surveillance problem. Illegal software is not only Greek but also European, but I want Greece next month to be the first country in Europe to ban illegal surveillance and illegal surveillance systems,” he asserted. An interim report from the European Parliament unveiled on Tuesday 8 November advocates at least a “moratorium” on these technologies, while spyware has been used “illegitimately” in at least four EU countries (Greece, Poland, Hungary and Spain). Unless new elements come to precipitate a resignation of the Prime Minister, it will be up to the voters, expected to vote in July 2023, to build a conviction in this affair.