The politically heated August, the Mitsotakis message and the reactions of the opposition

By Niki Zorba

About ten days before the scheduled time, the Parliament will restart its work (On 22.08 instead of the 31st) after the developments of the last few days regarding the monitoring, as the Prime Minister’s message yesterday did not satisfy the opposition in terms of explanations and A. Tsipras requested an immediate opening of Parliament and a discussion at the level of political leaders.

The Parliament will not open immediately, but it will open quickly as the political climate is heavy and the Government accepted the request.

Legal but wrong

Yesterday, the Prime Minister took a position on the issue of wiretapping, acknowledging that the monitoring of the President of PASOK was politically incorrect, it should not have happened, if he had known, he would not have allowed it, despite this he noted that it was legal. An element that the government repeated in its announcements after Mr. Mitsotakis’ televised message, repeatedly.

The Prime Minister’s explanations did not satisfy either the major or the minor opposition and above all, they did not satisfy the directly interested party, Nikos Androulakis.

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s statements, the president of PASOK called on the prime minister to announce the reason immediately of his monitoring by the EYP, dismissing him for “excessive audacity” for the fact that he described it as “legitimate”.

Addressing Kyriakos Mitsotakis, he additionally accused him of “methodically avoiding giving an explanation for the parastatal arm that had been set up. The spy “superplane” Predator attempted to trap my mobile phone while a few days before I had been placed under surveillance by the EYP” .

The intervention of Evangelos Venizelos after the Prime Minister’s statements was also loud. “Major error” Mr. Venizelos characterized the “Prime Minister’s position that the surveillance was formally legal but politically incorrect”. He asked, “regarding the specific and confessed incident, the competent bodies of the criminal justice system must act immediately”.

“He did not answer the question that concerns public opinion and has been raised by SYRIZA, how many more citizens, journalists and politicians have been put under surveillance by the EYP during his administration”, commented the official opposition party, bringing back the question posed by Alexis Tsipras from the first moment it was revealed that the EYP was monitoring the leader of PASOK.

SYRIZA also insists on the infamous Predator, but also on surveillance of journalists, such as Th. Koukakis.

Heavy climate

The climate in the Government has been heavy since Friday, when the resignations of Dimitriadis and Kontoleon opened Pandora’s box. The government’s message that the monitoring of the president of PASOK (during the intra-party race) was politically incorrect, from where P. Kontoleon was framed, but not illegal, remains high on the forefront of the government’s arguments.

Running forward with the four initiatives announced by the prime minister for institutional changes in the EYP, Maximou is attempting, in view of the new political season, which will traditionally open from the “balcony” of the TIF.

This is a critical milestone, September 2022 as the Government enters the last year of its rule.

Source: Capital

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