I didn’t hesitate to admit the mistake about monitoring Androulakis, said the prime minister and blamed SYRIZA for 54,000 surveillances during his days. Mitsotakis’ resignation was requested by Al. Tsipras – File a motion of censure, the prime minister replied.
Fierce was the conflict between the political leaders in the debate in the Parliament on surveillance, with the spearhead of the surveillance case of the PASOK president, Nikos Androulakis.
In the debate, three questions were raised by the opposition to the prime minister, who was persistently asked by Alexis Tsipras and Michalis Katrinis to give explanations:
If he knew about Androulaki’s surveillancewhat were the national security reasons that required the monitoring of his mobile phone and if there are other MPs or MEPs who have been victims of monitoring.
THE Prime Minister was categorical that he himself did not know on the surveillance Androulakis: “I looked the Greek people in the eyes and said that I did not know about the surveillance Androulakis” he said referring to his public statement a few days ago.
Mitsotakis’ response provoked a strong reaction from Tsipras, who in response to the prime minister said: “Who tells you to say these things? That the EYP is building a barrier, a parastatal? Who tells you to say that the EYP can do whatever it wants without the Prime Minister knowing?”
The prime minister has been firm in his position that issues related to EYP cases are not revealed publicly and he scolded Mr. Tsipras for commenting on what was leaked as reported by the new EYP commander, Themistocles Demiris, to the Institutions and Transparency Committee.
“How do you feel about using evidence from a closed session? You accused me of giving a surveillance order. It’s your word against mine. The citizens will believe either you or me. […] No prime minister has the ability and the right to know who the EYP is monitoring. I do not know. The prime minister is a recipient of information. It never occurred to me to ask based on the EYP reports what the sources of the information are. I don’t know and I shouldn’t know. These persons are known to the commander, the ADAE and the competent prosecutor – in the past there were two, now there is one”.
The prime minister, responding to Mr. Tsipras, who said that when he was prime minister he did not think of giving an order for surveillance, emphasized: “You told Mr. Tsipras that there were no surveillances during your days. Then you told us you didn’t know. I saw that in your days there were 54,000. Did you look at them one by one? Didn’t you have other work to do? For a faction of the Left, this approach seems at least strange to me.”
He also noted that a priori no one can be exempted from surveillance for reasons of national security, but for the cases of parliamentarians it must be extremely substantiated, which in the case of Androulakis this did not happen.
One slip is not enough
Mr. Mitsotakis defended the work carried out by EYP, saying that slipping is not enough and should not nullify a very important project, with a measurable national benefit.
Moreover, regarding the question of whether the Androulakis connection was legal, Mr. Mitsotakis called on the president of PASOK, if he insists that it is illegal, to appeal to both the Greek and European courts.
“However, in the name of transparency, the bulletins of a secret service are not going to become flyers, as you did recently at the meeting of the committee of institutions that MPs were on the open line” he added.
On his part, Mr Michalis Katrinis asked to come to Parliament the surveillance file Androulakis.
Changes are coming
Insisting on the positive agenda of the debate, the prime minister announced institutional changes with protection provisions, and indeed specific ones for public figures and communication with the Parliament, as was done with the PNP, which became mandatory to be heard by the Institutions and Transparency Committee.
These changes will concern four points, which Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised as follows:
Four truths
1. Any confusion between Predator-type software and legitimate attachments must be eliminated. The former do not exist in the Greek authorities. The legal attachments span a wide spectrum, from the actions of the police, the coast guard, terrorism. They operate with a special pre-existing protocol. It’s time to evaluate.
2. The Androulakis case highlighted a serious gap in the protocol. The procedure was followed as provided for in the provision of 2018. But it was underestimated since it concerned a prominent politician. He had to show a different reflex. It was legal, but politically unacceptable.
3. All over the world the activities of secret services are shrouded in secrecy and secrecy with all their officers bound to lifelong secrecy. Not to create impressions and espionage scenarios. Difficult to understand the manipulations of this character. Those who deny it are not telling the truth.
4. From the first moment, the government invited the person concerned to be informed personally and changed the regulation of SYRIZA for the double signature of a prosecutor and followed all the procedures and the judiciary has been informed at the highest level. The case is being investigated by a single prosecutor, the Supreme Court Prosecutor.
Motion of censure or insolent politician
During the debate there were moments of great tension between the prime minister and the president of SYRIZA, with Alexis Tsipras to call on the prime minister to resign and call elections, while Kyriakos Mitsotakis for his part raised the gauntlet by calling on SYRIZA to file a motion of censure against the government.
“If you think that I do not enjoy the confidence of the Parliament, submit a motion of no confidence now and come and face each other. I am waiting for you, otherwise you are an insolent politician. You will find opposite 157” he said.
Besides, the prime minister was categorical once again on the issue of the time of the elections: “You are asking for elections to destabilize the country. At what political cost, I will not run away. At the end of the four years we will come to face each other, the sovereign people will decide. The government submits neither to pressures, nor to pathogens, nor to its own weaknesses.”
For his part, Mr. Tsipras called for elections to stop the country sinking into the abyss and called on the opposition to an unyielding institutional struggle “to defend democracy and civil rights, to restore democratic normality, to get rid of country from the toxic cloud of immorality”.
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