Opposition parties slam government following wiretapping resignations
The resignations related to the alleged phone tapping of PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos Androulakis “comprise an admission of guilt and confirm the responsibility of the prime minister himself,” main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras said on Friday.
Tsipras was referring to the resignation earlier of National Intelligence Service (EYP) chief Panagiotis Kondoleon and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ General Secretary Grigoris Dimitriadis.
“Mitsotakis ought to provide explanations to the Greek people over his own ‘Watergate.’ It’s an issue related to democracy,” Tsipras tweeted.
In a separate statement, SYRIZA accused the prime minister of “both knowing about the phone tapping and coordinating it.”
The main opposition party also claimed that Mitsotakis “sacrificed his closest and most trusted associates in an attempt to save himself.”
The two resignations “prove that what the government and government spokesman [Yiannis] Economou has been saying months now were obscene lies,” the party charged.
PASOK also accused the government of attempting to cover up the phone-tapping allegations from its leader, despite the fact they were confirmed by the European Parliament.
“Ten days ago the PASOK leader alleged that there was an attempt to tap his cellphone, which was confirmed by the European Parliament. The next day, the government rushed to Parliament to hush up the issue,” said parliamentary group leader Kostas Skandalidis, referring to the closed-door parliamentary committee meeting on the allegations on July 29.
He added that the government’s justifications for the resignations on Friday “are ridiculous and obviously incomprehensible.”
Greece has “an obvious major issue of democracy and transparency,” Skandalidis continued, “and the responsibility for this lies directly with the prime minister. If he cannot live up to his democratic obligations, he should call elections.”
PASOK, he underlined, would continue to “battle the dark mechanisms that operate without supervision in Greece.” [AMNA]
