Today, as requested by the Socialists and Democrats, the Parliament will hold a plenary debate on the wiretapping scandal in Greece.
The Greek government admitted in August that its intelligence services had been spying on journalists and the leader of PASOK, our S&D MEP Nikos Androulakis, while there was also an attempt to hack his phone with illegal spyware named Predator. While the scandal is widening, with new potential victims, the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has still not provided any clarifications. Instead, the Greek government has continued attacks against journalists and media reporting about the spy scandal.
S&Ds are worried that the Greek parliament inquiry will not yield any result as it is dominated by the ruling New Democracy. On Thursday, they blocked the key witnesses from testifying. This is why the European Parliament has responsibilities to search for answers. On the S&D’s request, the Parliament’s committee of inquiry to investigate the use of the Pegasus and equivalent surveillance spyware (PEGA) will send a fact-finding mission to Greece at the beginning of November.
Hannes Heide MEP, S&D spokesperson in the PEGA committee said:
“The Greek government continues to brush the topic under the carpet by playing the confidentiality card. It is unacceptable. The illegal wiretapping of politicians and journalists is an attack on democracy and the rule of law. The Greek authorities must clear up why for three months they were spying on Mr Androulakis. If one of the opposition leaders is a threat to the national security, the Greek voters should know!
“I am also very concerned by the government’s attacks against media and journalists for critical reporting, as testified by some victims in last week’s PEGA hearing. Already before, journalists were intimidated because they were reporting about pushbacks of migrants, and the ‘Reporters without Borders’ placed Greece among countries with the worst press freedom.
“It is very disappointing that so far we have not heard a word from Ursula von der Leyen regarding surveillance or spying on Greek journalists and the opposition. I reiterate that this is a breach of our EU values and principles enshrined in our Treaty. I expect the Commission to tell us tonight what it intends to do to prevent spying on politicians, journalists and other innocent citizens, whilst defending the rule of law and media freedom in Greece and Europe.”
S&D MEP Nikos Androulakis, the leader of PASOK added:
“I have made it clear from the very beginning that my wiretapping is not something personal. It is about democracy.
“The Greek people deserve to know the truth. The Prime Minister, as the political head of the secret services, can, according to law 3649 of 2008, lift the secrecy and make known the reason for my surveillance, instead of continuing to poison and divide the Greek people with conspiracies.
“In democracy no state agency can operate in the dark. Secrecy ends where the need for transparency and accountability begins.
“We need an institutional framework that shields European citizens both from their governments and from oligarchs who can have access to illegal spywares, further strengthening their power.”
