Our voices got mixed up, our voices got mixed up,
hoaxes and malfunctions, and bugging
our lines are tangled, our lines are tangled*

That our lines are tangled is certain. Just as we were entering the final stretch of the elections and with a bang, here comes the unpredictable... Back-channeling, collusion, eavesdropping, use whatever term you like...

So, of necessity, we will have to seek the truth, as to whether the surveillance of MPs was done in violation of the Constitution, as PASOK and SYRIZA claim, or whether it is a political farce, based on obvious unfortunate manipulations of the National Intelligence Service, as the government and the Prime Minister claim.

The role of the National Intelligence Service is twofold: it collects information concerning the security of the country, analyses it and distributes it to the competent authorities, while at the same time it prevents the exercise of espionage activity against our country. It is a Service of capital importance, whose capacity contributes decisively to the preparation of the country to face dangers both on the external front and at home, in relation to organized crime and terrorism.

In its operation it must comply with the constitution and the existing laws. With regard to the particularly serious and sensitive issue of interception of communications, a special law provides for the procedure to be followed.

After the 2019 elections, the responsibility of the NIS was transferred from the Ministry of Interior to the Prime Minister, considering that this way the security of the country is better served, while at the same time satisfying the long-standing demand of the Association of Intelligence Service employees.

From the first days, when the information about the phone tapping of the PASOK leader was made public, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took responsibility for the wrong handling, which was accompanied by the resignations of the Director of the National Intelligence Service and his Secretary General.

It is obvious that there is political responsibility, but beyond that, an asymmetric reaction is developing, on the part of both SYRIZA and PASOK, with the ultimate goal of creating a "robust" political environment through which to drag the government to elections.

Three comments on this:

First, the polls so far, despite the unprecedented crises managed by the government, brought New Democracy, to lead, with a difference from SYRIZA, greater than the 2019 elections, while PASOK, seemed to stop its upward course, since the election of Androulakis and retreat. This explains the feverishness with which Tsipras and Androulakis seized the opportunity to inflate the issue and keep it in the news, pushing the government to elections. In short, I argue that the issue is real, the government has a political responsibility which the Prime Minister has taken on, but that's about it. The Greek people, when they go to the polls, will decide for everyone and everything.

Second, Given the opportunity, the "aspilos and immaculate" of SYRIZA, two ministers of which are being taken to the Special Court, came out to talk about the unrepentant evil right, the dismantling of the NIS, in relation to the control of the joints of power and the other graphics of the imitation left.

Third, let us recall the Vatopedi scandal, the result of which was that the Karamanlis government went to the polls under the worst possible circumstances.

PASOK, being in opposition, with the blessing of foreign agents, who were then annoyed by Karamanlis' opening up to Russia, made the allegations of a huge scandal. Not that there was no political responsibility then either... but it was magnified and used to bash the government. And it should also be said that despite furious efforts to bring criminal charges, in 2017 all the alleged participants were exonerated.

But, despite the fact that, as Karamanlis said at the time, light always beats darkness, with which I fully agree, the time in which it is done is important. Because in 2007, any effort to re-establish the state, which was the gamble of the Karamanlis government, as well as the opening up to Russia, went down the drain and the country ended up as it did under the subsequent government of Georgios Papandreou. What can you do, that in 2017, ten years later, justice was done? After all, what is Goebbels' propaganda theory?Throw mud, throw mud, in the end something remains.

Therefore, today, in the same play, let us get ready for a parade in the arena of institutional and transparency committees, pre-trial committees, debates in Parliament, invocations of experts on the Constitution, experts on surveillance, agents, personal attacks, calls for resignation and recourse to the polls, as well as an exaggeration of a toxic political climate.

In between the revelation of the "scandal", the floating drilling rig "Abdul Hamid Khan" has started drilling in the sea plot between the occupied territories and Turkey and whether it is thinking of moving on to other plots is probably of no concern to the creators of the toxic climate, the important thing is for Mitsotakis and the evil right to leave, so that the democratic forces of the left and progress can come in, which, after all, are not burning, if we divide the Aegean in half so that the poor people across the way, who have so many kilometres of coastline, can also take it, or we lose an island or two. The sea has no borders, since... Have you forgotten?

With this and that, the gladiator and the beasts enter the arena...

So take your positions!

* Fatme, 1986

Lieutenant General (retired). Nikolaos Manolakos

Honorary Commander ASDEN

Member of Parliament for Piraeus and Islands