Pre-election period gets off to toxic start
Mitsotakis, Tsipras cross swords in acrimonious debate against backdrop of wiretapping affair
It was no holds barred during Thursday’s debate in Parliament of a new bill on the National Intelligence Agency (EYP), which was, unsurprisingly, focused on the wiretapping affair, even though specific evidence was not presented.
The session was dominated by the acrimonious exchanges between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and main opposition SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras, reflecting the deep polarization in the Greece political system and providing a glimpse of the climate that will pervade during the election period, which in essence has already, albeit informally, begun.
The debate was held against the backdrop of recent publications with lists of individuals allegedly under surveillance, including the of New Democracy Vice President Kostis Hadzidakis and General Konstantinos Floros, chief of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA).
“I see that you are involving in your plans both the armed forces and the chief of the armed forces, Mr Floros. He is the last rung on the ladder of misery. Understand that the party interest stops where patriotic duty begins,” Mitsotakis said, rebuking Tsipras, in reference to the fact that SYRIZA alleges that both men being surveilled have also elicited commentaries in the Turkish press.
Mitsotakis also accused Tsipras raising an issue of which he has no proof.
Tsipras, however, insisted on the issue and called on the prime minister to directly and categorically refute the published information that Hadzidakis and Floros were being monitored by the National Intelligence Service (EYP). Escalating his attack on Mitsotakis, he added: “If it turns out that you are lying, you will take responsibility and resign. You will not stay a day.”
In response, Mitsotakis escalated the rhetoric even further.
“Is it possible that you are suggesting that I was surveilling a minister? Shame on you for even suggesting it. Aren’t you a little ashamed? Either that I was watching or that I knew that Mr Floros was being watched? Aren’t you a little ashamed? Aren’t you a little ashamed?”
“I know that some people on the other side of the Aegean will be very happy with what is being written,” he said.
The SYRIZA president, however, rephrased the same question, noting that the issue is critical and concerns national security.
