The government's reluctance to meet with PEGA has arrived in today's Economist report, with the magazine commenting that if evidence of her involvement in the surveillance is finally found, then the chances of Mitsotakis winning the elections are blown away.
More specifically, as The Economist reports today, the European Parliament officials are in Greece to investigate whether the ruling party used spy software to illegally spy on politicians and journalists. The government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis denies buying the Israeli-made Predator software, which, as The Economist reports, is similar to the Pegasus spying software used by governments in Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
According to the magazine, the government's reluctance to meet with the Pega delegation is suspicious. “This reluctance intensifies concerns that the party of the Southwest was eventually involved in an attempt to hack the phone of the leader of PASOK - Kinal, Nikos Androulakis,” it is noted.
“The Greek parliament's investigation ended abruptly last month after government MPs blocked opposition requests to summon key witnesses, including directors of Intellexa, the company with which Mr Mitsotakis” nephew was involved,“ it said. ”If, however, there is evidence that the government was behind the wiretaps, this could blow up Mr Mitsotakis' chances of winning the parliamentary elections next spring," the Economist report concludes.
We recall that the members of the EP's PEGA Committee were scheduled to arrive in Athens on Wednesday afternoon, coming from Nicosia where they were found investigating surveillance and in Cyprus.
According to the programme, MEPs will start their contacts immediately upon their arrival in Greece. But the programme does not include Kyriakos Mitsotakis, nor other key persons involved in the wiretapping scandal.
It is noted that there was intense discomfort and irritation in Maximos after the leak of the programme of PEGA's visit to Greece, which listed possible meetings with the Prime Minister and people like Felix Biggio. The political groups in the Commission had already agreed on the programme, which had been sent to the Bureau of the European Parliament for approval.
The programme of the meetings
According to what is known, PEGA delegates will finally meet with journalists on Wednesday afternoon, on Thursday will discuss with the members of the House Committee of Inquiry H. Theocharis, N. Karathanasopoulos and Sophia Sakorafa, while in the morning they will also meet with Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, following a letter from Olga Gerovassili.
The secretary of the Parliamentary Group of SYRIZA - Progressive Alliance, in a letter to the chairman and members of the PEGA Committee, asked to include in the Committee's meeting program the MP and head of the members of the Investigative Committee of the opposition party, for the case of violation of the confidentiality of communications of Nikos Androulakis, Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, in order to present objective data and deliver the conclusion of the members of the SYRIZA-PS after the completion of the proceedings of the Committee of Inquiry of the Greek Parliament.
Afterwards, PEGA members will have a working lunch with Minister of State George Gerapetritis.
Subsequently, PEGA members will have successive meetings with the Head of the Athens Prosecutor's Office Sotiria Papageorgakopoulou and the Director of the Electronic Crime Unit Vasilios Papakosta.
Early in the afternoon, they will see the chairman of the inquiry, Yannis Kefalogiannis.
The day will close with a meeting of PEGA members with the victims of the wiretapping scandal, the President of PASOK-Kin.Al. Nikos Androulakis, the Minister of Citizen Protection Christos Spirtzis and the journalist Thanasis Koukakis.
Friday 4 November, On the last day of their visit to Athens, PEGA members will first meet with the head of the Communications Privacy Authority, Christos Rammos.
Immediately afterwards, they will see NGO representatives, namely Stefanos Loukopoulos from Vouliwatch, Lefteris Papagiannakis and Fotini Kokkinaki from the Hellenic League for Human Rights, as well as Stefanos Vitoratos from Homo Digitalis.
The three-day visit of PEGA members to Athens will conclude with a press conference at 11am on Friday morning.
The PEGA delegation travelling to Greece and Cyprus
- Jeroen LENAERS (President of PEGA and Head of Delegation / EPP, Netherlands)
- Sophia IN ‘T VELD (rapporteur for the PEGA/Renew report, Netherlands)
- Sylvie GUILLAUME (Socialists, France)
- Juan Ignacio ZOIDO ÁLVAREZ (EPP, Spain)
- Elissavet BOZEBERGK-BRYONIDI (EPP, Greece)
- Thijs REUTEN (Socialists, Netherlands)
- Róża THUN UND HOHENSTEIN (Renew, Poland)
- Saskia BRICMONT (Greens, Belgium)
- Stelios Kouloglou (Left, Greece)
- Laura FERRARA (Non-registered MEPs, Italy)
- Lídia PEREIRA (EPP, Portugal)
