Political Review of the Royal Suite
Wiretapping
2023 began with the much-discussed case of spying in progress, for which we had continuous revelations and fake news, and until now, when the year ends, it still has not been clarified. The government has not given clear answers, with the Maximos Palace claiming that it had no knowledge and it is also waiting for the answers from the investigation of the Justice which, as is known, takes a long time. They have, however, spoken of "dirty networks" and surveillance carried out by "EYP sub-centres, which they inherited and operated unchecked", without further explanation, citing secrecy for reasons of national security. However, unlike the government, which tried to downplay it, SYRIZA, as the official opposition, not only reduced it to a mega scandal but also bet on it, considering that it could become the battering ram with which to bring down the government.
Conflict between the government and ADAE
The accusations against the president of ADAE, Christos Rammos, by government officials with insinuations of pursuing a political role was an aggressive behavior far from the respect with which the executive power should address him, but also the attitude of Mr. Rammos surprised (without this justifying the government's behavior) when he met Alexis Tsipras to give him sensitive information from third-party surveillance, which the next day became a flyer
The government was faced with the strongest blow it suffered during its term, which revealed in the most painful way how public organizations still operate today that have never been modernized in practice. Mr. Rammos, a close friend of Vangelis Venizelou, who nominated him for this position and was also voted for by New Democracy with the recommendation of Gerapetritis, used to be formal and keep his distance from political power in similar cases, as happened a few months after New Democracy's first electoral victory, in November 2019, when, in his hearing in the Parliament on the events of 2017-2018, he had revealed that the communications in Greece were perforated and that the Authority was not even able to calculate how many illegal surveillance systems existed in the country. In other words, Mr. Rammos had not shown discriminatory behavior but had highlighted the problem, without the parties giving any importance or follow-up during that period. And 2023 arrived with the EYP having unresolved and magnified problems, as demonstrated by what became known about its operation last year.
The trial and sentencing of Nikos Pappas
2023 started with Nikos Pappa's trial at the Special Court ongoing and in February the decision was announced in which he was unanimously found guilty of breach of duty. The businessman Christos Kalogritsas, who was tried as his accomplice in the TV license case, was also unanimously found guilty. Nikos Pappas claimed that his prosecution was political. During the trial, corroborated evidence and unrebutted testimony was presented describing acts contrary to the duties of a minister. The testimony of the shipowner Vangelis Marinakis, for example, was not only not refuted but was also characterized as consistent by Nikos Pappas's advocate. Christos Kalogritsa's secretary testified as a witness and spoke about bags and envelopes with money leaving for SYRIZA and journalists who worked with him for the channel. He also said that they were asking Christos Kalogritsa to help the party to set up the television station that Nikos Pappas would control.
Motion of no confidence – Tsipras in Zappeio
In January, Alexis Tsipras tabled a no-confidence motion against the government over the surveillance issue, and the parliament, as expected, voted it down. After that he declared that he decided to transfer "the motion of no confidence to the people, the supreme judge, because in democracy there are no dead ends" and he went to Zappeion, where he announced that SYRIZA will abstain from the votes in Parliament, calling for the immediate announcement of elections in February, so that "the people and not the 156 MPs can decide whether they want Democracy or diversion".
Visit Blinken
On February 20, Athens was visited by the American Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, who met with the political leadership of the country (and the official opposition) in a warm atmosphere. It was preceded by a trip to Turkey, where he once again tried to appease Tayyip Erdogan to agree to Sweden and Finland joining NATO. He is one of the politicians who considers Turkey's role very important and one of the architects of the "calm waters" in Greek-Turkish relations.
The shock of the Tempe train crash
The government was faced with the strongest blow it suffered during its tenure.
At the end of February the death of dozens of young people in train accident in Tempe caused shock, emotion and collective mourning in Greek society. The lack of security, inefficiency and corruption of the OSE, all these have been known for years, but no one had bothered to change them. The inadequacy of the policies prevented the restoration and modernization of the signaling and remote control system, so the country had returned to the Stationmaster era in worse conditions than before, as the personnel cuts imposed on the agency by the memorandum policies had intervened . The main problem with safety, it appeared, was contracts not progressing and contractors not completing projects, so it became dependent on an inept station master of questionable training. The government was faced with the strongest blow it suffered during its tenure, which revealed in the most painful way how public organizations that have never been modernized in practice still operate today. The signaling and remote control project was supposed to have been delivered by 2016, but neither government managed to complete a project that could have been completed within a few months. The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Kostas Ah. Karamanlis, resigned, however infuriating the families of the victims with his re-candidacy and his re-election as a member of parliament a few months later.
Georgoulis case
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, announced last April, surprising the plenary, the existence of a request to lift the parliamentary immunity of his MEP SYRIZA Alexis Georgoulis from the Belgian public prosecutor's office, without giving any other information. All that was initially known was that it involved allegations of offenses committed three years ago. On June 1, the European Parliament, following relevant recommendations from the Legal Affairs Committee, voted to lift his immunity and the case is before the Court.
The May elections
The May elections registered a big victory for New Democracy and one biggest defeat for SYRIZA, as the massive decline of the main opposition party was a rare political phenomenon. SYRIZA refrained from analyzing the causes on the grounds that they would go to a second round of elections and it was not the right time to discuss mistakes and responsibilities. Alexis Tsipras, at the meeting of the Central Committee held on May 26, admitted that the election result was a painful shock.
The only region not painted blue on the results map on the first Sunday of the election was Rhodope, and its differentiation raised questions. However, SYRIZA executives, but also minority executives from other political arenas, had denounced that it was the interventionist consulate in Thrace that got involved, supporting the SYRIZA candidate Özgiur Ferhat, and that is how Rodopi became pink, something Koumundourou denied. Kyriakos Mitsotakis raised the issue for reasons of electoral expediency, asking the two minority SYRIZA MPs to answer whether they consider the minority Muslim, as stated in the Treaty of Lausanne, or Turkish, as Turkey calls it, leaving spikes for relations with Turkey and EYP reports that it said were in the knowledge of Alexis Tsipras, causing his reaction.
The wreck of Pylos
The Justice investigation into the causes of the shipwreck and into any mistakes and omissions of the port authorities that failed to save them all is ongoing.
The fishing vessel of an illegal trafficking ring which sank off Pylos, leading to the death of an unknown number of immigrants and refugees (104 men survived), was another tragic event that shocked public opinion in the interval between the two election contests, when the government was caretaker. The Justice investigation into the causes of the shipwreck and into any mistakes and omissions of the port authorities that failed to save them all is ongoing. The head of Frontex, Hans Leitens, said at the time that his Greek colleagues were doing everything they could to save lives, but it was heavily criticized by many organizations and politicians. Political expediencies aside, some reasonable questions emerged about the many ambiguities and gaps in the Coast Guard's explanations, for which answers have still not been provided. The caretaker government of Ioannis Sharma was positioned as follows: "There is no indication that anything illegal was done, but in any case this has been taken over by the Justice and everything will be investigated."
The victory of New Democracy last June he brought her political dominance of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which no one could even imagine after Tempi. The parliamentary group of SYRIZA was decimated, while PASOK managed to maintain the increase in its percentages recorded in May. Zoe Konstantopoulou, with Pleusi Eleftherias, succeeded in entering the Parliament, while Varoufakis' party was left out. The June 25 elections put two more parties in the Parliament, the conservative Christian party of Niki and the far-right party of "Spartiates" which had the support of the imprisoned neo-Nazi Ilias Kasidiaris.
The resignation of Alexis Tsipras
Three days later he appeared in Zappeion to resign.
On the night of the second elections, Alexis Tsipras avoided mentioning the causes of the electoral collapse and why they went from 31% to 17%. He argued that, despite the serious electoral defeat, the danger of the collapse of SYRIZA had been averted and he called the election result "negative for society and democracy". That night he declared that a cycle was closing to open a new one and that he would once again put himself before the party members. Three days later, however, he changed his mind he appeared at the Zappeion to resign. "I now have the experience not to take these decisions in the heat of the moment. To take them on my pillow and torture them. To decide calmly. And that's what I did for three twenty-four hours," he said.
The drowning of a 36-year-old man and the resignation of Varvitsiotis
The drowning of the 36-year-old was another incident of violence and lawlessness, following the incidents in Evros, Croatian hooligans crossing the country unmolested and businessmen illegally occupying beaches in the summer, blocking residents' and visitors' access to them. All of the above contributed to a bad start to the second term of the Mitsotakis government, which had promised "normality" and "law and order". After the death of the 36-year-old in Piraeus, many complained that no one in the chain of command of the Coast Guard did their job properly and it was obvious that there had been fatal omissions. A few days later the prime minister requested and received the resignation of the responsible minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis.
Stefanos Kasselakis, president of SYRIZA
Ο Stefanos Kasselakis, who entered the State ballot of SYRIZA in a non-eligible position in May as a "discovery" of Pavlos Polakis and until then was unknown, made a surprise in September, claiming and winning the leadership of SYRIZA and leaving the favorite in the "cold bath" which was Efi Ahtsioglou. The general of his victory, Pavlos Polakis, thus got his own revenge, while Alexis Tsipras who had given him the green light and some of his associates were also satisfied with the result. But a lot has changed since then. Kasselakis, who has taken the keys to the party, began to become independent, spreading terror in the political establishment of SYRIZA, which is studying the moves it will make in the next period to control him. A milestone will be the congress, but the day after the European elections will decide the future of SYRIZA.
Local Government Elections – A victory that shocked the omnipotence of the New Democracy
PASOK won significantly in the municipal elections, since its candidates won in the municipalities of Athens and Thessaloniki.
New Democracy won both municipal elections, as expected, but the few but significant losses he recorded damaged the prestige of the "mighty winner". This was the first message of dissatisfaction for the Mitsotakis government, which of course also concerned its choices in self-government. PASOK won significantly in the municipal elections, since its candidates won in the municipalities of Athens and Thessaloniki.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted that the second ballot of the self-governing elections "was not particularly good for the ND" and attributed the negative results to a counter-mobilization of forces against their own candidates and the low turnout. Despite the explanations they gave publicly, Maximos realized that the election result of the second round contained a strong political message. Where government choices were not considered successful and citizens felt they had an alternative, they chose it, thus sending their message.
In the Region of Thessaly it was the protest for dealing with floods, in the Region of the North Aegean the management of immigration. The local elections did not shake the Mitsotakis rule, but they warned that voters are not taken for granted, even if they think so of the government because there is no strong official opposition.
Rishi Sunak canceled the meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis
This incident probably worked against Rishi Sunak in his own country.
The politically vulnerable, without popular legitimacy, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak canceled a few hours before its scheduled meeting with the Greek prime minister at the end of November in London for fear of being faced with some unpleasant surprise regarding the Parthenon Sculptures, which would expose him to the conservative public who does not agree with the their return.
Sunak claimed that it had been agreed that no statements would be made about the Sculptures and was annoyed when Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave an interview to the BBC and spoke about the issue, giving the example of the half of the Mona Lisa, which received a lot of publicity. The Maximos Palace denied that there was such an agreement and the truth is that it could only exist for their joint statements. At this level meetings there is always a preparation between partners about what will be discussed, but the content of these meetings is never revealed.
Sunak could ask that they not mention a topic during their joint interview, but he could not forbid the Greek prime minister to talk about the Sculptures in his interviews. After all, he was asked by a journalist about the topic of the Sculptures and he could not help but answer. In the end, this incident probably worked against Rishi Sunak in his own country, as it made him look weak, and he was heavily criticized by most of the British media.
Shortly before the end of the year, Kyriakos Mitsotakis surprised by announcing the postal vote, which he presented as a "historic reform" that will deepen democracy and improve the lives of citizens. However, serious objections and many reservations were expressed by the opposition parties. The government had said it would seek to introduce postal voting, but only for expatriates, not universally.
And the New Left happened
They created a new parliamentary group called "New Left" and put Alexis Haritsis in charge.
Alexis Tsipras tried to prevent the withdrawal of the Ahtsioglou-Haritsi group (which he did not do for Tsakalotos and Skourletis), but he did not succeed. A total of eleven MPs, together with those who followed them, left SYRIZA, without listening to his plea to stay until the European elections that would close the cycle of Kasselakis (he himself recently declared that he will stay). They created a new parliamentary group called "New Left" and put Alexis Haritsis in charge - with this scheme they plan to take part in the European elections as well. In an event they held in early December, after their departure, they stated that they could not stay in SYRIZA, which is mutating into another party that does not represent them.
An Erdoğan visit without surprises
Erdoğan's visit had no unpleasant surprises.
The Turkish President put aside the "Mitsotakis yoke", came to Athens, he signed a declaration of friendship and tried to be as reserved as possible. Unexpectedly there were not and that was the news. Neither the Greek nor the Turkish side moved from their positions and both were limited to the so-called positive agenda with the painless issues.
The amendment to legalize immigrants that upset New Democracy
The government had been planning it for a long time, but wanted to pass it just before the end of the year, as quietly as possible, so that there would be no turmoil and for fear of political costs, as the European elections are not far away, and it knew that it would displease the right wing . If Antonis Samaras had not reacted so noisily, he might have managed to pass it without making a fuss. The former prime minister and president of New Democracy, however, decided to intervene and request the withdrawal of the amendment for the legalization of immigrants, a request that was not heard. At least 5-6 MPs, however, agreed with him, as emerged from the concern they expressed, but did not dare to vote against, since Maximos made it clear that only Antonis Samaras would tolerate dissent.
The article was published in LiFO print.
