Wiretapping – PASOK chief to PM: I’m not going to be briefed privately

With a written statement, the president of PASOK, Nikos Androulakis, lets loose barbs at the government for what has been done so far with the monitoring of his mobile phone and makes it clear that he is not going to receive information “by ear” as he says, but also that he has no confidence in the ministers.

At the same time, he requests that the entire file be immediately forwarded to the Institutions and Transparency Committee and that the Authority for Ensuring the Privacy of Communications and the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data be informed in the most official way about the reasons for monitoring his mobile phone.

The entire announcement

Had I not been a member of the European Parliament, today, I and the entire Greek people, would not have known about the parastatal methods used by the current government.

We would not have known that in September 2021, shortly after the announcement of my candidacy for the presidency of PASOK, National Intelligence Agency-EYP began to monitor me and a few days later there was an attempt to entrap me through the Predator software.

What is not part of the public discourse is that during this critical period for the democratic faction, EYP, through monitoring me, also monitored an entire party, former Prime Ministers, MPs, and members of the party, who talked to me at regular intervals about goings on.

So it wasn’t just me they were wiretapping but an entire democratic party.

In all of this, the Government Spokesman and the now few, even within his party, defenders of Mr. Mitsotakis insist that it is my fault that “I don’t go and be briefed”.

Based on my experience from the missions of the European Parliament to countries whose governments use such practices, it is common for the victim to appear as the aggressor, uncommunicative, uncooperative and ultimately an enemy of the state’s security. The goal is obvious: to make such dark methods tolerated by public opinion.

Mr. Mitsotakis, to put things in order.

You were illegally monitoring me through EYP.

You are delaying the investigation into the spy “supermalware” Predator in Greece, with which an attempt was made to trap me, and also victimizing journalist Thanasis Koukakis. The company allegedly associated with this has not yet been verified.

You avoid answering the diabolical coincidence that a few days after the monitoring of the EYP began, the attack against me with the Predator took place.

You avoid making public what is the serious reason that made me a “national threat” at that particular time. Is it because for the previous 7 years I was an MEP and  this “national threat” begins with my candidacy and ceases to exist a few days after my election to the Presidency of the Movement [PASOK]?

Is this all a diabolical coincidence or a comprehensive plan for political extermination?

I make it clear in all tones that I am not going to enter into a verbal debate with EYP authorities, which operated beyond the Constitution and the laws.

I will not legitimize the illegal practices of the Mitsotakis Government by participating in an extra-institutional process, which is neither legal nor ethical.

I have no confidence in the Ministers, who claim that I am not co-operating and at the same time state that my file from the monitoring may have been destroyed.

They are the same ones who disrespected the Greek parliament and misled the Greek people during the meeting of the Institutions and Transparency Committee.

I am not going to accept a briefing “by ear”.

I will not tolerate “loss of” or tampering with data.

I will not play the conspiracy theory game with leaks about foreign countries. The Embassies of Armenia and Ukraine refuted you by exposing you.

I request that the entire file be immediately forwarded to the Institutions and Transparency Committee and that the Authority for Ensuring the Privacy of Communications and the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data be informed in the most official way about the reasons for my illegal and unconstitutional monitoring by EYP.

You proved in practice how pretentious your announcements were to change the institutional framework of EYP by bringing an Act of Legislative Content without consultation and by maintaining the distorted status of the Service’s affiliation to the Prime Minister’s office and the provision not to inform the person being monitored for reasons of national security.

You tried as the facts show, to hold me and an entire Faction hostage in order to achieve your nefarious purposes. Not only have you failed miserably by exposing the country internationally, but today this proud Faction along with the majority of the country’s democratic world, are showing you the door for your exit from power.