Greece spy scandal: Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledges intelligence 'error'
The head of the Greek government Kyriakos Mitsotakis, here during a session in Parliament in November 2020. REUTERS - COSTAS BALTAS
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The Conservative Prime Minister spoke publicly on television for the first time since the start of the affair, which the opposition describes as “
Greek Watergate
”.
A spy scandal involving a prominent politician - and, before him, journalists - which shakes the power in place and notably led, last Friday, to the resignation of the head of intelligence.
The Prime Minister, who recognizes that a mistake was made, affirms on the other hand to have been aware of nothing.
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With our correspondent in Athens,
Joël Bronner
Visibly uncomfortable, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek Prime Minister, spoke about a case of wiretapping that sounded like a state scandal, during a recorded television message lasting six minutes.
Without ever going into the details of why the phone of his political opponent - Nikos Androulakis, MEP and now leader of Pasok-Kinal, the country's third political formation - had been monitored for three months during last year.
On the other hand, the Prime Minister repeated to whoever wanted to listen that he had nothing to do with this affair, referring the fault to the intelligence services, whose boss resigned at the end of the week.
“
What happened may have been legal on paper, but it was a mistake.
I was not aware of it and, of course, I would never have authorized it
, ”he says in his address, regretting the use of the Predator software, which allowed the surveillance of members of the opposition and of journalists.
“
Although everything took place within a legal framework, the national intelligence service underestimated the political dimension of this particular action.
(…) This should not have happened, because it breeds citizens' mistrust of our security services
,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
A mistrust and a scandal that already reach the Prime Minister himself.
The incriminated intelligence service being directly under his orders since a legislative change, put in place just after his accession to power in 2019.
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To read also: Spy scandal in Greece: resignation of the director of intelligence services
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Greece
Intelligence
Kyriakos Mitsotakis