Battle royal expected in Parliament as parties prepare to debate, probe wiretapping scandal

By George Gilson

As Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and main opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, along with other opposition leaders, prepare to cross swords over the National Intelligence Service (EYP) wiretapping affair in the first plenary session of Parliament on 26 August, there will be a barrage of meetings in the legislature this week that will include the confirmation hearing of the new EYP chief and determining the procedures for a full-fledged parliamentary probe of the case

Parties are already in battle formation, with all opposition parties prepared to lay the blame for the wiretapping of PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis squarely on the shoulders of Mitsotakis, who soon after his election in July, 2019, placed the National Intelligence Service under the direct supervision of the PM’s office, with his chief of staff and nephew (his sister’s son), Grigoris Dimitriadis in charge of the oversight of EYP.

Dimitriadis’ resignation on 5 August was framed as a move to temper the politically “toxic” environment that emerged after revelations of the surveillance operations (which also included investigative journalist Thanasis Koukakis, who was reporting on banking scandals), and he did not assume political responsibility for the affair, nor has anyone else in the government.

Pavlopoulos’ intervention

Ex-president Prokopis Pavlopoulos on 16 August caused a sensation when he lashed out at the government for not assuming its “objective responsibility” for the violation of constitutional rights [Article 19] through the wiretappings.

The PM himself in a national address said that the surveillance was perfectly legal, as it was approved by EYP’s supervising prosecutor, Vasiliki Vlachou, but that it was “politically a mistake” and that he knew nothing and “would never have approved it”.

Vlachou approved the wiretappings on the basis of “national security”, which is permitted by a law that requires no further explanation or clarification of the grounds of the order.

EYP chief Panagiotis Kontoleon, who was also hand-picked by the PM, resigned the same day as Dimitriadis on the vague grounds of a “mistaken handling” of putatively legal wiretappings.

PASOK, SYRIZA slam government, Mitsotakis

PASOK and SYRIZA slammed the ruling party for postponing until next week the meeting of the competent Parliamentary Committee on Institutions and Transparency, which PASOK-KINAL leader Androulakis and SYRIZA had demanded two weeks ago, along with a special parliamentary inquiry.

“The ruling majority, against the will of all other parties, decided to hold a parliamentary debate at the level of party leaders instead of immediately convening of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency,” read a PASOK statement, which accused Mitsotakis of plotting a cover-up of the wiretappings and of seeking to disorient public opinion by staging a parliamentary rooster fight with Tsipras on 26 August, without the facts at their disposal.

List of witnesses, time span to be covered by probe

Dimitriadis, Kontoleon, and Vlachou, and the president of the The Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE), Christos Rammos, are expected to be summoned to testify before the committee when it convenes, and before a special parliamentary investigative committee on the wiretappings, which Androulakis had demanded, when it is formed.

New Democracy wants a special parliamentary inquiry to probe not only the current scandal, but the last 10 years of EYP’s operations, in order to identify and remedy as it said chronic dysfunctions.

Both SYRIZA and PASOK-KINAL, at a conference of deputy parliament speakers representing each party  today, reportedly did not object to extending the time span of the probe, but the parties have yet to express an official position.

SYRIZA to vote down new EYP chief

The confirmation hearing for Mitsotakis’ pick as new EYP chief, Ambassador Panagiotis Demiris, who until now held the crucial post of general secretary of the foreign ministry, is scheduled for 24 August, and SYRIZA has already said it will vote against him down due to the fact that he was appointed by the PM, whom the main opposition party views as the “mastermind” of the surveillance affair.

This is the third time that an ambassador has been appointed to head the National Intelligence Service.

The first, after a much bigger crisis, was when ambassador Loukas Apostolidis in 1999 replaced Charalambos Stavrakakis, on whose watch Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan, Turkey’s number one enemy, entered Greece illegally on a Lear jet and then was flown by EYP to Nairobi, Kenya, where he was holed up at the Greek embassy before being arrested by foreign agents.

At the time, the Greek government feared that the affair could even trigger a war with Turkey.

After his election in 2004, ND PM Kostas Karamanlis appointed veteran diplomat Ioannis Korantis to head EYP.

PASOK’s letter to Parliament Speaker

In a letter to Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas, PASOK demands the formation of a parliamentary investigative committee, the purpose of which will be “to examine the case of the violation of the confidentiality [of communications] of the PASOK-KINAL leader and MEP Nikos Androulakis by the National Intelligence Service (EYP) or by other individuals or legal entities, the confirmed effort to hack his phone with Predator spyware, the illegal use of it [the said spyware] in Greece, and possible responsibilities of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and every other implicated individual or legal entity”.