Interior ministry official to take over vacant sec-gen post after email leak
Nasos Balerbas, secretary-general of the Interior Ministry, will replace in the coming days another ministry official who resigned over a data breach scandal in which emails were sent to diaspora voters by a Conservative European Parliamentarian, Kathimerini understands.
Balerbas, in charge of Interior and Organization, is one of four secretary generals in the ministry. The other offices are the General Secretariat of Public Administration, General Secretary of Local Government & Decentralization – a post held until recently by Michalis Stavrianoudakis who resigned – and General Secretary for Citizenship.
He is expected to carry out parallel duties for the next period while the two general secretariats may eventually merge in the future, sources said.
Stavrianoudakis’ resignation came after the government said an internal investigation carried out by the Prime Minister’s Office showed that a list of email addresses of Greeks living abroad was allegedly leaked by ministry and New Democracy officials to MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, who then used it to contact voters without their permission.
Some of the recipients said the emails were received minutes after instructions were released by the Interior Ministry over how to vote by mail.
The leak set off a firestorm of criticism with recipients arguing that Asimakopoulou had breached the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. After initially dismissing the allegations, Asimakopoulou announced she was withdrawing from the European Parliament elections. New Democracy also ousted its secretary for diaspora affairs, Nikos Theodoropoulos.
Opposition parties accused the government of attempting to favor its own candidate, with main opposition SYRIZA describing the leak as “a very serious blow to the integrity of the electoral process, shortly before the elections with the new postal voting procedure.”
The Athens Prosecutor’s Office and Greece’s Data Protection Authority (DPA) have each launched an investigation.
The ruling Conservatives voted in January a law expanding the eligibility criteria to allow more Greeks abroad take part in elections.
