Tsipras, Syriza lambast gov't over phone-tapping resignations
The resignations related to phone tapping charges by PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis "comprise an admission of guilt and confirm the responsibility of the prime minister himself," SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance leader Alexis Tsipras said in a tweet on Friday.
Tsipras was referring to the resignation on Friday of National Intelligence Service (EYP) Panagiotis Kondoleon and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' General Secretary Grigoris Dimitriadis. Mitsotakis accepted both resignations, which followed a parliamentary investigation behind closed doors on July 29.
"Mitsotakis ought to provide explanations to the Greek people over his own 'Watergate', it's an issue related to democracy," Tsipras said.
Also commenting on developments, Syriza spoke of "the scandal of illegal tapping of political foes and meddlesome journalists" and claimed that the prime minister "both knew of phone tapping and coordinated it."
In a statement, the main opposition party also claimed that Mitsotakis "sacrificed his closest and most trusted associates, trying to save himself," but the two resignations "prove that what the government and government spokesman (Yiannis) Economou has been saying months now were obscene lies." Even what Kondoleon, Digital Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis and State Minister to the Prime Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis told the Parliament's Institutions and Transparency Committee a week age were lies, it claimed.
Syriza also lambasted what it called the government's "ridiculous leaks trying to shift debate from the illegal 'Predator' software to so-called legal tapping by EYP and to the so-called toxic (public debate) atmosphere" do not absolve anyone of his responsibilities, "which are not simply political but could also be criminal."
"Nothing will remain in the dark," Syriza asserted. "Everything will be investigated to the end, and (Mitsotakis) himself will answer for this unprecedented illegal and undemocratic post-junta deviation that he attempted in order to establish his regime," it added.
AMNA