• Questions with Answers Tempe tragedy and wiretapping scandal mark elections in Greece
  • Direct Witness "Syriza is no longer a left party, it represents the interests of the rich"

He has faced fierce protests during the last months of his legislature over the train tragedy of the Tempe accident and the scandal of his government's wiretapping. But Kyriakos Mitsotakis (Athens, 1968) arrives at the electoral appointment almost 7 points ahead of his rival. He is used to the game of politics.

The Greek prime minister owes his 'savoir faire' in the Greek political arena to family tradition. He belongs to one of the three dynasties that have exercised power in the Hellenic country since World War II: the conservative Karamanlis, the socialists Papandreou and the Mitsotakis-Venizelos, traditionally center-right.

He is the son of Constantinos Mitsotakis, Greek 'premier' between 1990 and 1993 who was also nephew of the historical Eleftherios Venizelos, a key figure of the Cretan insurrection against the Ottoman Empire, architect of the integration of the island into the Greek State in 1905 and seven times prime minister between 1910 and 1933. Decades later, the lineage continues in the hands of Kyriakos, leader of New Democracy, and his sister Dora Bakoyannis (surname of her husband killed by far-left terrorism), the first woman mayor of Athens during the 2004 Olympics and then Minister of Foreign Affairs with the Government of Kostas Karamanlis.

With his victory in 2019, Kyriakos Mitsotakis returned Greece to the tutelage of the 'old guard' after the four-year 'impasse' of the populism of the radical left of Syriza that ousted New Democracy from power in 2015 with its promise to end "the vicious circle of austerity" in a crisis-hit Greece. Then Mitsotakis was part of that conservative Executive of Andonis Samaras as Minister of Administrative Reform, in charge of firing thousands of officials as dictated by the draconian conditions of the bailout.

With a preparation worthy of the elite from which he comes, in 2016 he took over the leadership of New Democracy to face Tsipras in the 2019 elections and return power to the conservatives by an absolute majority. During his inauguration he swore on the Bible instead of the Constitution, like his predecessor. He was well trained for the position. He graduated in Social Studies at the prestigious Harvard University with 'summa laude' and in International Relations at Stanford; he then worked in several banks in London and as a consultant at McKinsey.

His impressive resume on paper has not prevented him, however, from the scandals that every politician faces sooner or later, no matter how high a cradle he has. Mitsotakis was splashed by the Siemens case, one of the biggest corruption schemes since the end of the dictatorship of the military in Greece: the German company paid 1,300 million euros in bribes between 1999 and 2005 to senior officials to win contracts in various countries, 130 million were distributed in Greece. In 2008, the 'premier' was accused of having accepted equipment from the German company worth 137,000 euros. During the investigation it was revealed that Mitsotakis had a close relationship with the head of Siemens in Greece, Michael Christoforakos, and the leader of New Democracy then decided to pay for them.

In the Panama Papers, which revealed in 2016 the concealment from the treasury of numerous politicians, appeared Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis, Kyriakos' wife with whom he has three children. The scandal was settled by alleging that the marriage had been separated for years, so the 'premier' had no responsibility in the declaration of assets of his wife.

Already as head of government, this year, Mitsotakis has managed to weather the violent days of demonstrations over the train accident in Tempe, in which 57 young people died. The 'premier' appeared publicly, blamed it on "a tragic human error", apologized and declared three days of national mourning, but his party fell several points in the polls against Syriza.

But the issue that has been most used as a weapon during the election campaign has been that of the wiretapping of businessmen, politicians and journalists in the country, in which Mitsotakis appears as the main accused of being behind the espionage plot and which has been baptized as the 'Greek Watergate'. Among the targets of the Predator spyware were everything from Samaras to members of his own cabinet, to the military and the leader of the Socialists, Nikos Androulakis. Last January, Mitsotakis faced a motion of censure for the scandal presented by Syriza, and which he overcame by an absolute majority. The 'premier' admitted mistakes and denied knowing the list of people affected by the espionage.

In these elections he seeks to govern alone, something that becomes difficult given the all against all that has prevailed in the campaign. The economic growth experienced by Greece in the last two years is its main asset (one of its star promises is the increase in the average salary to 1,500 euros and the minimum to 950, currently at 780), in addition to the control of migration, which has reduced its flows to 90%.

  • Greece
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