Victim of Wiretapping Scandal Testifies Before Greek Parliament

Nikos Androulakis testifying before the European Parliament in 2021 (Wikimedia Commons).

Nikos Androulakis, chairman of the Greek center-left opposition party PASOK-Movement for Change, testified before a parliamentary committee on September 30. The committee convened for a hearing over wiretapping allegations against New Democracy, the liberal-conservative majority party. Greece’s National Intelligence Service (EYP) came under fire in July after the European Parliament exposed EYP, which directly reports to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the New Democracy party, for attempting to bug multiple journalists and opposition politicians, including Androulakis. 

Although the EYP was unable to bug Androulakis’s phone, their actions sparked global outrage, particularly from the European Union, and led to September’s parliamentary inquiry. EYP Director Panagiotis Kontoleon and Mitsotakis’s Chief-of-staff Grigoris Dimitriadis, who are both very close to Mitsotakis, have also resigned amid reports. 

Despite these resignations, the prime minister has denied any knowledge or involvement in the wiretapping. Instead, he deferred to the judgment of the EYP, saying: "It was formally OK, but politically unacceptable.” Mitsotakis’s answer mimics the response of the EYP and its party members, who have defended the attempted surveillance under the guise of national security. 

Amid domestic and global calls for Mitsotakis’s resignation, as well as Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou’s own push for an investigation, the Greek parliament launched a month-long inquiry into the attempted bugging. The hearings concluded with the testimony of Androulakis, who decried his opponents’ actions and political environment as “centralist and characterized by arrogance, and decadent absolute authority.” 

Notably, Androulakis, who has led PASOK-Movement for Change since December 12, 2021, testified, “We are faced with a double scandal: a scandal of illegal surveillance and the scandal of a cover-up.” 

Recent polls of Greek citizens have made clear that Androulakis’s words ring true for many voters, with 58.3 percent agreeing that the wiretapping scandal negatively affected their trust in government. As July 2023 parliamentary elections quickly approach, the phone-tapping affair–which Mitsotakis’s critics call just one drop in a much larger bucket of crackdowns on wrongdoings during the Prime Minister’s tenure– will be on the ballot.

The parliamentary committee investigating the attempted hackings will present their report by October 10. Nevertheless, observers don’t expect the findings to be particularly impactful due to the inquiry’s brevity and the classified nature of the reasons which drove the initial surveillance. 

Still, Greece’s wiretapping scandal reflects a broader, global trend of illegal surveillance of political figures, journalists, and activists. From French President Emmanuel Macron to the fiancee of murdered Turkish journalist Jamal Khashoggi, such incidents have affected thousands. Greece’s next steps will be a testament to the majority party’s commitment to civil liberties and the model for the onlooking world.