By Politico, Brussels Playbook: Greek spy scandal returns,
PREDATORGATE LATEST: The spying scandal involving Predator malware that engulfed the government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is back on the agenda today, with the House Committee on Institutions and Transparency convening in the parliament to discuss the appointment of Themistoklis Demiris as the new chief of the National Intelligence Service (EVP).
Recap: The former head of the security agency, Panagiotis Kontoleon, resigned earlier this month over revelations that the EVP had illegally tapped the phones of MEP Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the PASOK party, and journalists.
Not happy: But already, Greek opposition parties are crying foul. The main opposition party, Syriza, as well as senior PASOK figures say they will not support Demiris’ appointment, Nektaria Stamouli writes in to report. “He is not a bipartisan choice, he is the choice of Mitsotakis, who is the mastermind of the scandal and is obviously taking over with a mandate to cover up and not to clear up the surveillance scandal,” Syriza said in a statement.
Inquiry call: PASOK has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the use of wiretapping under the current government, which Syriza said it will back. The proposal will be voted on during a parliament plenary session next Monday. Mitsotakis’ New Democracy party, however, will seek to expand the scope of the inquiry so that it stretches back to 2012 — a period that covers the activities of previous governments. Surprise, surprise.
Piqued response: Following the European Commission’s letter to Athens on July 29 looking for answers on Predatorgate, the response is in. In a letter dated August 2, the Greek permanent representative to the EU had this reply for the Commission’s Directorate General for Justice, according to officials familiar with the content of the letter: “Taking into account the fact that national security should be treated with utmost sensitivity, we would consider it prudent in the future to avoid hastily endorsing verbatim specific publications coming from political media that do not always distinguish themselves for accuracy and objectivity.”
Get the message: While the response insists that Greek authorities are at the Commission’s disposal “in a spirit of cooperation and working together as a team for our common cause of protecting the rule of law,” Athens’ message is loud and clear: butt out. “I truly believe that such a first step would be more constructive and instrumental, rather than promptly engaging in written correspondence based on media reports that amply remain to prove substantiated,” the letter adds, according to the same officials, Nektaria reports.
