Greek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras tabled a no-confidence motion against the government on Wednesday and called on PM Mistotakis to resign over the phone tapping scandal.
The leader of SYRIZA said that prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cannot continue in his post after presenting evidence in Parliament that the Greek intelligence services (EYP) were tapping the phone of former energy minister Kostis Hatzidakis and senior defense officials, including Chief of General Staff Konstantinos Floros, Chief of Land Forces Charalambos Lalousis and General Director of Defense Investments and Armaments Theodoros Lagios.
Tsipras said that the names of the above were handed to him after an investigation by the state’s privacy watchdog (ADAE) on Tuesday.
ADAE’s chief Christos Rammos, sent a letter to the House speaker, party leaders and the justice minister, regarding the investigation of his agency into the phone tapping affair.
In tabling the no-confidence motion, Tsipras said that “the prime minister and the government are irrevocably guilty.”
The parliamentary debate on the non-confidence motion starts on Wednesday and it will arp up on Friday with a vote. It requires 150+1 votes to be approved, which is believed to be unlikely.
Tsipras accuses Greek PM of serious legal responsibilities over phone tapping
He added they have not only political but also “serious personal and legal responsibilities”.
“It is dangerous that those who made our national security a field of wiretapping and blackmail, to remain in power…It is dangerous for democracy, the security of the country, the human rights,” Tsipras added.
Tsipras argued that Mitsotakis “organized this [phone tapping] network in order to have at hand, not only useful information for his political opponents, his political friends, the military leadership, and journalists. But also to have them in hand, to blackmail them. To know their thoughts, aspirations, weaknesses.”
He added that “he organized this network from the first moment he took over the governance of the country.”
He characterized the prime minister as the “brain and leader of this criminal network”, accusing him of arrogance because he “believed that no one would ever control him”.
Mitsotakis has maintained that he did not know that EYP was phone tapping, despite the fact that EYP became under his personal control in 2019 when he assumed office.
Even if he speaks the truth, opposition parties say that he is incapable of running the country if he is unaware of what intelligence services do on his behalf. Many ponder the question: Who really runs Greece?
Tsipras has repeatedly called Mitsotakis to resign and hold snap elections. The SYRIZA leader says that the country cannot go to the polls, to be held sometime after April, as long as the shadow of the phone tapping scandal remains.
Related: Who Really Governs Greece? The Chronicle of the Phone Tapping Scandal
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