Here comes the mother of the wiretapping battles

By Dimitris Gatsiou

The hot political August. Or, in a different version, the… mother of the battles for government and opposition, which will have as its dominant edge the topic of surveillance. All this, in the context of Parliament, which begins its work on Monday and a week earlier than originally planned, at the moment when the parties… are sharpening their swords, with the… thermometer rising further, giving a first, but highly competent taste of what’s to come in the coming months in this… marathon until the national election.

New field

The politically stormy start of the new season, the debate in the Plenary at the level of leaders, at the request of the president of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, as well as the appointment of the meeting of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency will determine the whole scene of the coming days and weeks. In the government, they are preparing the… papers that they will throw in the pending parliamentary confrontations, “all in the light” remains, consistently on the front page, as executives point out, while everyone in the Maximos Palace is also waiting for the first polls, which will start to come in the public light within the next twenty-four hours. They will record the imprint left on the government profile by the major issue of monitoring, but also the possible deterioration in the percentages of the “blue” faction, especially after a momentum of chain reactions of the opposition and… internal aftershocks, which caused cracks . Cracks that, according to the estimates of the actors, will not be the ones on which Koumoundourou and the president of SYRIZA are mainly investing.

The movements

The… lights, as mentioned at the beginning, fall on the debate that will take place in the Parliament, with the most likely days of the conflict between the government and the opposition next Wednesday or next Thursday. The relevant decisions not only for the debate in the Plenary, but also for the meeting of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, will be taken at the Conference of Presidents, which will also be the beginning of the political bra-de-fer. Within this context and in the… logic that “the best defense is an attack”, the government staff structures strategies and objectives, as long as executives keep the prime minister’s immediate reaction in the foreground, from the moment the puzzle of the revelations about Androulakis surveillance. Mr. Mitsotakis, who has already made the government’s self-criticism, is expected to focus exactly on this part of the immediate reaction, as well as the immediate decisions, in order to “undress” the argument that the opposition has developed and will continue to develop.

At the same time, the conflicts between the government and the opposition are expected to turn to the time frame that the entire debate will cover. And at this point in the political equation and conflict over the case of surveillance, the formation of a Commission of Inquiry is raised, which the government has accepted from the first moment. At Megaron Maximos, they seek to… open the fan of the ten-year examination period. That is, from 2012 until 2022, which will include the co-governments of Samaras-Venizelos and Tsipras-Kammenos, in order to find under the… microscope all the pathogens. “We want to go over the course of a decade, in the logic of finding what needs to be improved in the context and not of netting. To find the pathogens and change them”, commented government officials in “K”. “Looking at all of this over time, because the discussion has focused on what happened in the recent past, it makes sense to look at this over a certain length of time. To see if there were specific or different practices in the past, during the tenure of different governments, and to make an overall assessment and see initiatives that we need to undertake”, noted the Minister of Justice, Kostas Tsiaras.

Everyday life, economy and tours

The new political season may be starting with the expected conflict in the Parliament over wiretapping, but in Megaron Maximos they are not willing to let the time pass on single issues. “We continue to deal with the problems of the citizens, in the face of the major crises in energy and accuracy”, government officials report to “K”.

In this context, Mr. Mitsotakis has noted in his notebook the milestone of his transition to the International Exhibition of Thessaloniki, while the main objective is to move the discussion to a pattern of everyday life and economy, while the planning for the support is in full progress of households and businesses in the face of… the vise of price appreciation. The meetings within the government on the announcements at the International Exhibition will intensify with the return of the prime minister from Qatar, the exit from the regime of enhanced supervision is a reality, giving more flexibility to the interventions and with the data so far the measures he will present Mr. Mitsotakis will include, among others:

-Additional boosts on the power accuracy front.

-A new precision check, which will attempt to put a stop to a galloping inflation.

-Another piece in the fuel subsidy puzzle.

-Heating allowance, with expanded features.

-Complete abolition of the solidarity levy. The measure is expected to be implemented from the beginning of 2023. About 500,000 civil servants, civil servants and pensioners will benefit.

-Increase in pensions.

– Third increase in the minimum wage in a year to the level of 751 euros from the beginning of 2023.

-Program to ensure cheap housing for young couples.

At the same time, from the last week of August, the new round of tours of government and party officials in the region will begin. The first stop, also due to TIF, will be Northern Greece.

* Republished from “Chapter” in circulation