President calls for thorough investigation in wiretapping case
President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Tuesday stepped into wiretapping scandal that has engulfed Greece’s conservative government.
Stressing that the level of transparency in state affairs is a measure of the quality of a democracy, Sakellaropoulou called for a thorough investigation in the case, as well as steps to improve the operation of the National Intelligence Service (EYP).
Sakellaropoulou, a former president of Greece’s top legal body, meanwhile noted that any exception to communications privacy laws for reasons of national security, as stipulated in the Constitution, “must be interpreted narrowly and its application must be in accordance with the principles of the rule of law and of proportionality.”
In an address to the nation on Monday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis insisted he had no idea PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis, who is also an MEP, was being monitored by intelligence services reporting directly to him.
Mitsotakis described the phone tapping – which took place over a three-month period last year before Androulakis was elected PASOK chief – as a mistake that should never have occurred.
The country’s spy chief and Mitsotakis’ most trusted aide last week resigned over the affair.