Movement for Change

By Vasilis Labropoulos

Amidst a political uproar over the National Intelligence Agency's tapping of the phone of centre-left Pasok-Kinal leader Nikos Androuakis, New Democracy MP Charalambos Athanasiou, the second deputy speaker of Parliament and a former justice minister, cited Muslim MPs of ethnic Turkish origin as an example of legitimate surveillance of an MP by Greece's National Intelligence Service for reasons

President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, a former high court judge who served as president of the Council of State, weighed in today on the issue of surveillance of citizens by the EYP National Intelligence Service, calling for strict enforcement of the relevant constitutional provisions.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, July 5, 2022. Photo: EPA-EFE/JULIEN WARNAND

By George Gilson

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denied prior knowledge of the phone tapping by the EYP National Intelligence Service of European Parliament deputy and current centre-left PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis during a three-month (September to early December, 2021) that covered the entire PASOK leadership race and stopped two days after Androuolakis won.

Centre-left PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis has demanded that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis personally answer why his phone was tapped by Greece's EYP National Intelligence Service before and after the European Parliament MP became a candidate in the race for the party leadership, between September and December, 2021.

Ten days after PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis filed suit in the Greek Supreme Court (Areios Pagos) over the hacking of his telephone, after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' Chief of Staff, Grigoris Dimitriadis, and the chief of the country's EYP intelligence agency, Panagiotis Kontoleon, tendered their resignations.

A new survey conducted by the Pulse polling company for SKAI television and radio indicates that citizens are concerned by Greek-Turkish tensions, that they are greatly pressured by the high inflation rate in the prices of electricity, foodstuffs, and fuel, and that they are nearly evenly split about whether the PM should call early elections or serve out his term and hold then in spring, 2023.

By coincidence, the three largest political parties that hope to come to power (either single-party rule or in a prospective coalition) have conducted or are organising their conventions amidst a combination of global public health, war, energy, inflationary, and economic crises.

Ruling New Democracy maintains an 11.6 percentage point lead over main opposition SYRIZA in an Opinion Poll survey conducted between 7-12 February for tomanifesto.gr.

The poll shows that centre-left KINAL is on the rise and if that trend continues, some analysts believe it could have a fighting chance of beating SYRIZA for second place