A. Tsipras asks for the opening of the Parliament and a discussion of the leaders on the surveillance

A short while ago, Alexis Tsipras had a telephone conversation with the President of the Hellenic Parliament, Mr. Konstantinos Tassoulas. The president of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance informed him that he submitted a letter requesting the interruption of the Parliament’s summer vacation and the appointment of an extraordinary debate before the agenda in the Plenary on the subject of the monitoring of politicians and journalists by the Prime Minister’s Office of the Prime Minister.

As stated by Alexis Tsipras in his letter to Mr. Tasoula, “the political life of the country is experiencing one of its most critical moments in the post-political period” and “the Prime Minister, taking advantage of the fact that we are on summer vacation, tried to avoid the necessary process of extensive and of public accountability in the space that is its natural environment, that is, in the Parliament and chose to deliver a speech through a videotaped announcement with a prepared text”.

Alexis Tsipras asked Mr. Tassoulas to respond to his self-evidently democratic duty to facilitate the exercise of all powers of legislation and parliamentary control as soon as possible and, as an emergency, to set a daily debate.

For SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, “light should immediately be shed on what has happened with the highest dialogical process of critical scrutiny and discussion in the Plenary of the Parliament”.

Tsipras’ request for a pre-agenda discussion

TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE GREEK PARLIAMENT

Subject: Request for the holding of a pre-agenda debate in the Parliament (Article 143 of the Civil Code) on the surveillance by the Prime Minister’s Office of the Prime Minister of his political opponents and journalists.

Dear Mr. President,

The government on its rise to power imposed a regime in every way to reproduce and maintain its power. For this purpose, she did not hesitate to make unworthy appointments of “mothers”, scandalous waste of public funds, silencing and manipulation of the mass media, and even attempts to prosecute her political opponents with special courts and by erasing their views from the public sphere .

However, it was recently revealed that he did not even hesitate to set up and keep in operation a highly effective parastatal surveillance cell within the Maximos Palace itself.

The Prime Minister of the country, immediately after his election, having obviously calculated his next steps, brought the National Intelligence Service under his direct administrative control. In the position of head, he appointed a personal friend of his, who for his sake lowered the cognitive proficiency requirements for the position of Commander of the service, changing the relevant law. Subsequently, he allowed his immediate subordinates, the Commander of the EYP and the General Secretary of the Prime Minister, to utilize this sensitive service for other purposes. A journalist as well as the President of PASOK – KINAL are two of those who have already been proven with certainty that they were monitored sometimes by the EYP with their privacy removed and sometimes through the predator spy mechanism – which the government claims it does not possess, but the ” coincidences” of targets and follow-up times show otherwise. The fact that there was a conscious surveillance plan without it being noticed is also proven by the extraordinary legislation of Article 87 of Law 4790/2021, so that no one could – and even retroactively – be informed about the surveillance they had undergone.

The government even after the complaints, despite having all the necessary evidence and the time to know exactly what had happened, misled the public opinion and leaked lies in every institutional or non-institutional process. And she didn’t just leak lies, she humiliated the country and its relations with third countries that she portrayed as having requested the surveillance of the President of PASOK-KINAL or, even worse, she unleashed her “trolls” on the Internet to spread blackmail in relation to with the victims of her surveillance.

Finally, just today, the Prime Minister in his public speech stated in short that the one who will protect us from his arbitrariness will be himself and that he will do this through legislative initiatives that he will again take with an Act of Legislative Content. He is so afraid of the process of live accountability in the Parliament that he chooses to hide behind pre-formulated texts, videotaped announcements and proceed with legislation with the Parliament absent.

For the above reasons and due to the fact that these are serious issues of general interest, we request that a debate be held immediately before the order of the day in Parliament (Article 143 of the Civil Code) on the subject of surveillance of political opponents and journalists by the Prime Minister’s Office of the Prime Minister.

Yours sincerely
The Leader of the Official Opposition
Alexis Tsipras

Tsipras’ letter to PtB

To the President of the Hellenic Parliament, Mr. Konstantinos Tassoulas

Mister President,

The political life of the country is experiencing one of its most critical moments in the post-political period.

After a barrage of revelations, it emerges that the National Intelligence Service, administratively subordinated to the prime minister, instead of focusing entirely on addressing the country’s real national security challenges, had undertaken to carry out a series of surveillance through the declassification of communications of people who were targets of political interest for the Prime Minister himself. In fact, not by chance, the same persons fell victim to spyware in the same period.

Today one cannot say with certainty how many and who, politicians, journalists or other citizens, have been the focus of espionage interest and suffered surveillance with their privacy removed, who carried out these acts, for what purpose and in what exchange.

Taking advantage of the fact that we are speaking during the summer holidays, the Prime Minister tried to avoid the necessary process of extensive and public accountability in the space that is its natural environment, i.e. in the Parliament, and chose to deliver a speech through a videotaped announcement with a prepared text.

At the same time, he announced a legislative initiative that will be based on an Act of Legislative Content, apparently to avoid again, directly, at the most politically critical time, the control to which the opposition would subject him.

In view of the fact that during this period the Parliament is in a state of informal non-functioning of the Plenary and its Departments due to summer holidays and in view of the fact that as SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance we wish to immediately shed light on what has happened with the highest dialogical process of critical review and discussion in the Plenary Session of the Parliament, I call on you to interrupt the summer holidays immediately, so that the Plenary Session of the Hellenic Parliament can meet.

I call on you to respond to your self-evident democratic duty to facilitate the exercise of all powers of legislation and parliamentary control as soon as possible, and as an emergency to set a pre-agenda discussion on the subject of the monitoring of politicians and journalists by the Prime Minister’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

Yours sincerely
The Leader of the Official Opposition

Alexis Tsipras