Data, Spies and Indifference: How Mitsotakis Survived His ‘Watergate’

The surveillance of Koukakis' phone turned out to be the tip of an iceberg whose scale only began emerging last summer, as the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was swamped with claims that it had spied on the phones of journalists, opposition politicians, oligarchs and top state officials. The cascade of allegations, likened in the media to Watergate, offered up an image of a government caught in the act of flouting democratic norms - undermining privacy, press freedom and the rule of law. The government dismissed, or distanced itself from, many of the claims. In the run-up to elections, it would downplay the importance of surveillance and privacy concerns, arguing that voters grappling with rising inflation and energy costs would judge it primarily for its handling of the economy.

On May 21, it was proven right. Mitsotakis' centre-right New Democracy party trounced its opponents at the ballot box, securing more than 40 per cent of the vote. It is now expected to gain an outright majority in a second round, scheduled for June 25. The government's success has been attributed to voters' distrust of the leftist Syriza opposition, as well as their faith that the post-crisis economic recovery will deliver broad societal benefits. The surveillance scandal may not have helped the prime minister, but nor has it particularly hurt him.

Why did so many Greeks choose to stick with Mitsotakis? "It's the economy, stupid," said Tasos Telloglou, a journalist who has led the reporting on the surveillance scandal for Inside Story, an investigative outlet. "The economic rebound that began in 2018 has accelerated under this government." Moreover, he said, Greeks tended not to view surveillance as an electoral issue. "People think it doesn't...