Alexis Tsipras drew a parallel of the political behavior of Kyriakos Mitsotakis with an ostrich bird “who, when he feels that he is in danger, buries his head in the sand and thinks that others do not see her as such, because she does not see them as such”, “who hastened to cooperate with the chairman of the parliament, put the debate today, on the day of the summit, hide it so that the parliament does not give clarifications.

“He thinks that this is how he will escape,” said the President of SYRIZA PS, speaking at the plenary session of Parliament on the case of surveillance. “Mr. Mitsotakis is a political ostrich,” he said, adding that when “he thinks things are going in his favor, he organizes celebrations in which he is the star,” and “when things are bad, he hides behind international events, natural phenomena, employees”. He accused him of “hiding in the deadly phase of the pandemic – but this was revealed by Mr. Tsiodras himself”, that “he is hiding behind Putin because of the accuracy of scanning households and businesses – but official Eurostat data reveals him” and that “he is now hiding from the conversation about wiretapping, in an act of unprecedented political cowardice, behind his nephew, from the former commander of the EMP, behind the persons to whom he assigned duties and to whom he now imposes duties” .

The official leader of the opposition accused Mr. Mitsotakis of “hiding behind the shame of secrecy” and noted that what constitutes a “shame” for democracy, the functioning of parliament and the country, “if we finally allow the cover-up to go through such shocking scandal.

Does he think we can’t see him? Does he think that by raising the issue of privacy and threatening to jail those who speak out, he will unravel this mess? That by protecting critical witnesses and excluding them from the investigation, he will keep his mouth shut forever?” commented Mr. Tsipras. In addition, Mr. Tsipras asked if the Prime Minister thought that “having debated today in consultation with the President of Parliament, he would avoid answering the questions he asks.” “He won’t be back in parliament before the election?” Someday it will come,” he said.

He claimed that all of this was “blaming evidence of his guilt” and spoke of a “double scandal”, emphasizing that “the scandal of the cover-up is as serious as the scandal of the surveillance itself.”

Mr Tsipras said that “even if it’s a stump with majority responsibility,” the Commission of Inquiry found that “Predator equals EYP and EYP equals Predator.” He said that “the same recruitment center decided who the target was and had two main tools: official communication on the orders of – in her opinion – the rogue prosecutor Mr. Vlachos and the illegal Predator software” and that “when one means monitoring was chosen above others.” He noted that Mr. Androulakis and Mr. Spirtzis “received the same link to infect their mobile phone with malware and illegal software.”

In particular, he stated that “according to the testimony of Mr. Androulakis, as well as the head of ADAE, Mr. Rammos, the monitoring of the President of PASOK-KIN.AL. this exactly coincided with the period when he was a candidate for the presidency of KIN.AL, but as soon as he was elected, monitoring stopped prematurely.” “The national causes that imposed it disappeared as if by magic,” he commented. Referring to the Koukakis case, he said that “it appears that legal surveillance stopped precisely when he filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission so that the authorities could tell him whether his communications were being monitored, and that is when Mr. Mitsotakis changed the law so that the anti-corruption the commission could not inform him, and then illegal surveillance began with the help of illegal Predator software.” He went on to say that “on July 29, the day of the meeting of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency in the Koukakis case, Mr. Androulakis filed a request with the Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate an attempt to tap his phone. with illegal Predator malware, as he determined with the assistance of the competent committee of the European Parliament” and “on the same day, the commander of the EYP, Mr. Contoleon, gave the order to destroy the connection file of the previous interval”.

Mr. Tsipras noted that “in the case of Christos Spirtzis, the coincidences continue.” In particular, he said that “On November 13, 2021, Christos Spirtzis began filing complaints about how the EMP controls citizens based on their ideological and political preferences, according to a November 15, 2021 disclosure by F.Sin. he continued by asking a topical question to the prime minister, and the same monitoring goal was set on the same day. With the same decoy message that the Predator malware tried to trap Androulakis.”

He emphasized that “this is not a coincidence, but an illegal, semi-state, mafia operation of the EMP under the complete control and led, of course, by the prime minister and his political superior, Mr. Mitsotakis.”

Mr. Tsipras said the second finding of the investigation concerns the question of “who supplied the illegal software to Mr. Mitsotakis,” “obviously the company that is doing the work.” “Who are the businessmen who are apparently selling the Predator?” he asked, emphasizing that “despite great efforts to hide their tracks through constant acquisitions and transfers of companies that make up this whole maze, the investigation proves – and what was said and, above all, what was hidden in Expertise under the responsibility of the majority – that the same people are behind everything. “Those about whom there has been no discussion at all lately,” he said, “are precisely those whom Mr. Mitsotakis and the ruling majority have refused three times and turned heaven and earth so that they would not be called for interrogation.” “These,” he said, “are the respected businessmen Mr. Yannis Lavranos and Felix Bitzios, who were not called in for questioning, and now I’m wondering – because I don’t want to prejudice and accuse businessmen – I wonder what Mr. Mitsotakis is afraid of both the ruling majority and did you move heaven and earth to avoid being called to testify?” “What exactly is she afraid of, why is she hiding them?”.

He emphasized that the Committee on Institutions and Transparency will ever meet, “unless you also abolish it, unless you change its composition?” He added that at some point Mr. Mitsotakis would come to Parliament and ask him face to face: “What was his relationship with the businessmen in question, did he just know them, or had heard of them, or had one of them advised him on a regular basis? and on a regular basis? Has he ever met Mr. Dilian in his capacity as Prime Minister?”

Alexis Tsipras said that Democracy is not silent, “the law of silence and secrecy does not work.” “It was once true in Sicily and in Chicago. But not in the republic,” he stressed.

The Inquiry’s third finding, said Mr Tsipras, is that “there is no wiretapping scandal at all, and this scandal is not a scandal involving Dimitriadis, Kontoleodas, Lavranos, Bijou or I don’t know what other businessman.” “There is a scandal with Mitsotakis and his accomplices Mr. Kontoleon, today Mr. Demiris and a number of others are just his accomplices,” he said. He asked the question: “Who can believe that the mastermind of the headquarters state, who took even the EMP under his wing to supposedly increase the level of national security and turned it into a family wiretap, did not know?” He noted that “if he did not know and if everyone was deceived by Mr. Dimitriadis and his friends, then why was he in a hurry to cancel any investigation, ostensibly for reasons of national security, citing secrecy?”. He said “it’s not secrecy, it’s clear evidence of guilt and a cover-up.”

He accused the prime minister of pleading secrecy to virtually nullify the investigation “to justify the exclusion of important witnesses, the acceptance of refusal to produce important documents and the destruction of evidence” and this “for the obvious purpose of confusing the investigation.” cases and the disappearance of elements that can lead to execution and criminal liability”. He said that “it is a crime in itself”. At that moment, Mr. Tsipras, addressing the coalition parliamentarians, read an excerpt from the speech of Kostas Karamanlis, in which he stated, as read by President SYRIZA: “The fact that these events were caused by the initiative of the government is not only undemocratic and illegal, but also goes beyond all morbid imagination and unimaginable political stupidity. However, there remains an urgent need to find out who and on what basis requested such a request, and who approved it and how. The reference to private life in such cases is subordinated to the need to purify public life. “It was not I who said this,” Mr. Tsipras commented, “but the former prime minister and former leader of your faction, Mr. Karamanlis.”

Alexis Tsipras noted that “Mr. Mitsotakis preferred secrecy over purification, darkness over light, like an ostrich, the question is for how long.” “In any case, this choice testifies to his absolute guilt,” he stressed. He commented that the Investigative Committee “investigated, as far as you allowed, the cases of Androulakis and Koukakis regarding the wiretapping of Chr. Spirtzis, you made sure that there were no discussions in the exams or in the Committee on Institutions and Transparency.” He emphasized that “the case of Spircis is the case of SYRIZA”, since “it is about my close colleague, a member of the PG and the Central Committee, every time he was at a meeting of the SYRIZA body, these gentlemen have the opportunity to open the software, and they hear everything and see.” He stressed that “wiretapping of the official opposition and other parties will not remain in the dark, your duties will be entrusted to you.”

He went on to ask the question, “What happened to the Predator? Doesn’t it exist today as we speak? Who is listening?”

The official leader of the opposition stressed that with the end of the “parodic investigation” the case will not be closed and that the continuation will be transferred to the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, a PEGA committee that will come to Athens – “let him not go, Mr. Mitsotakis to account, the evidence of his guilt will be one more time, and to be fair.

He said that “there is not only general political responsibility, there is also the notorious individual responsibility” and specifically “the individual responsibility of the political head of the EEM, the prime minister for wiretapping, the governor of bedbugs who hid and hide when it came time to resist his duties.” He challenged Mr. Mitsotakis if he wants to prove that he didn’t know or “that he didn’t even approve of the scope of this squalor”, on the one hand, to get the anti-corruption commission amendment canceled tomorrow. and the removal of the ban on informing those under surveillance, and on the other hand, as the political head of the EYP, to demand the removal of secrecy “so that the truth may shine before the Committee on Institutions and Transparency.”

Finally, Alexis Tsipras stressed that if the prime minister “once again chooses the path of the ostrich and the cover-up, let him at least know that the road is very slippery and that all the democratic forces of the country, when the time comes, will do their duty.” With regard to SYRIZA, he emphasized that “we will not spare anyone, because if we save ourselves from the rape of the democratic function, then we will also be complicit in the crime.”

Source: RES