PM Mitsotakis under pressure over "Greek Watergate"

The wiretapping scandal in Greece continues to make waves. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is now facing a vote of no confidence put forward by the opposition party Syriza, whose leader Alexis Tsipras accuses Mitsotakis of lying when he claimed not to have known that the Greek National Intelligence Service was wiretapping politicians, ministers, military officers and journalists. Commentators have harsh words for the PM.

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Efimerida ton Syntakton (GR) /

Not a single traitor exposed

Efimerida ton Syntakton comments:

“Parliament will give its vote of confidence to Mitsotakis. But the entire Greek people will have the opportunity to see who this prime minister is. He is the man who, under the pretext of national security, has put the leadership of the armed forces under surveillance. He is the man who, under the same pretext, didn't hesitate to charge the leader of the third party in parliament, his minister, MPs, members of the European Parliament, journalists and others with potential treason. In the end, of course, he did not uncover a single traitor or threat to national security. ... But when a prime minister deals with national security in this way, he is the one who endangers it.”

Documento (GR) /

A dangerous web of surveillance

Documento warns against blackmail attempts:

“The audit carried out by the ADAE [Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy] on behalf of Alexis Tsipras, leader of the left-wing opposition party Syriza, has shown that the lists published by Documento are genuine. Leading officials of the armed forces, ministers, advisers to the prime minister, journalists, prosecutors, and important people in positions of responsibility were indeed monitored. ... In other words, Greece and its institutions are indeed, as we have been writing for months, surrounded by a web of surveillance. A network designed to gather information and use it to blackmail the official bodies of the state.”