Greece
Athens wiretapping scandal: Prime Minister refuses to resign
Sees no reason to resign: Kyriakos Mitsotakis. photo
© Aristidis Vafeiadakis/ZUMA/dpa
The Greek secret service EYP tapped the mobile phone of an opposition politician for months. Prime Minister Mitsotakis says the action was legal but wrong. Besides, he didn’t know anything about it.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has rejected opposition calls in parliament to resign over a wiretapping scandal and to call new elections.
The reason for the parliamentary debate was that the Greek secret service EYP tapped the mobile phone of an opposition politician for months. Mitsotakis again stressed in front of the deputies that he knew nothing about it; the action was legal, but wrong.
Despite persistent questions from the opposition, the Conservative leader refused to explain the reasons for the wiretapping, citing national security concerns. Above all, the former prime minister and head of the Syriza left-wing party, Alexis Tsipras, sharply criticized this attitude. Mitsotakis is legally, politically and not least morally obliged to disclose the background, said Tsipras and called for Mitsotakis’ resignation.
The EU parliamentarian and head of the Greek social democratic party Pasok, Nikos Androulakis, was bugged. A Greek journalist is said to have been the focus of the secret service. In the course of the revelations, the head of the intelligence service (EYP), Panagiotis Kontoleon, and the secretary general of the government office, Grigoris Dimitriadis, resigned.