Phone tapping case a ‘double scandal,’ Androulakis testifies
PASOK-KINAL party chairman Nikos Androulakis reportedly told a parliamentary committee on Friday that the wiretapping case is a “double scandal” including “illegal monitoring” and a subsequent “cover-up.”
According to party sources, Androulakis, who testified before a parliamentary inquiry regarding the Greek intelligence service’s (EYP) electronic surveillance of his mobile phone, described the situation as “not a personal issue, but an issue of democracy, pointing to an institutional breakdown and the erosion of regulatory systems.”
Androulakis is reported to have told MPs on the committee that the incident revealed a culture of governance that was “centralist and characterized by arrogance, and decadent absolute authority.”
These circumstances heightened citizens’ cynicism in the political system by sending a message of impunity and unaccountability of the political and economic powerful at the expense of the people and the public interest, he noted.
This meant that authorities could snoop on anybody they wanted without being held accountable, he stressed.
PASOK-KINAL’s leader also criticized the prime minister’s personal choice for the head of EYP, accusing him of making a purely partisan choice and actually changing the rules to appoint someone without relevant experience at a time of critical geopolitical upheaval.
“We are faced with a double scandal: a scandal of illegal surveillance and the scandal of a cover-up,” Androulakis said, noting the fact that his surveillance and his classification as a “security risk” for the country had coincided with the start of his campaign for the PASOK leadership.
“It would seem, rather, that I was a risk to your party’s interests and your party’s plans,” he added, addressing ruling New Democracy MPs on the committee. [AMNA]
