There is a lot of talk about the election and the presence of Singular Logic, a private company, in charge of gathering, processing and announcing the results. Much could be said about this. Mainly the fact that, now, the results are not announced per electoral division, but as a whole. But this has the result that it cannot be controlled on a small scale, and even by each of us. And there is no justification for this practice: with so much digitization and specialization, it would be very easy to have very detailed reports on the results.
But I do not intend to analyze this. I want to address the conflict of interest. And especially to the owners of Singular Logic. Who took on this job by direct assignment.
Spyros Manolopoulos, of Space Hellas
With their detailed article in the Democracy newspaper (posted here https://www.newsbreak.gr/politiki/442101/filos-toy-mitsotaki-o-kleidokratoras-tis-epomenis-kalpis/ ), with Title "Friend of Mitsotakis, the Keyholder of the next ballot", the journalists Emmanuela Tsouderou and Maria Panagiotou, are thoroughly reported on ownership status of Singular Logic and relations with the Mitsotakis family. The company, which was acquired in December 2020 (previously owned by Vgenopoulos and MIG), is currently owned by Space Hellas, of Spyros Manolopoulos, Epsilon Net, of Ioannis Michos, and Global Equity Investments SA with a small percentage (about 0,1 .6%). Also in the company Epsilon Net of Ioannis Michos, the company Barba Master Fund LP, which is based in some tax haven, has XNUMX%.
According to the above report, Dimitris Manolopoulos, father of Spyros, was associated with a scandal with the ND government, during the prime ministership of father Mitsotakis in 1993, in a multi-million case for the purchase of weapons systems. But also in 2010, PASOK and ND voted together to give a defense package from Germany, and the company of Dimitris Manolopoulos was involved in the implementation of the compensatory measures. After the latter's death, his son, Spyros, took over, and his company has been involved in almost every major government digital project in recent years. Now his company manages the collection, processing and transmission of the results of the Greek elections.
You can read details about all this in the Republic article, here .
The company has a rapid increase in its investments from 2019 onwards, undertaking investments in information systems, security systems and others in many public and non-governmental organizations (ministries, banks, EKAV, OPAP, PPC, EYDAP, university, and others), such as you can see in detail here.
Yiannis Michos of Epsilon Net
Giannis Michos, owner of Epsilon Net, a technology company that has been recording successes and receiving business awards for several years, remains unknown to many. But who is Giannis Michos? For the residents of northeastern Halkidiki, in the municipality of Aristoteli, Yiannis Michos is not unknown at all. This is the man who managed to get involved in Skouries of Chalkidiki and to be elected mayor of Aristoteli in 2014. Briefly, the story goes like this: at the initiative of local people, the anti-mining movement got involved in a process of nominating their own candidate for the then upcoming municipal elections, in order to get rid of Pachta, who was clearly in favor of the company. Although Michos had nothing to do with the movement, a whole mechanism was mobilized in his favor and in the end he was elected by the insurgents and persecuted of "Skourion" as their candidate and, in the end, he also won the elections in the municipality. But even before he was elected, it was becoming clear that he did not consider himself a man of the movement (see below his interview just before he was elected). In fact, during his mayoralty he significantly delayed many procedures, and took decisions contrary to the declared positions of the movement - which he had co-signed, although reluctantly it is true. Giannis Michos resigned from his position a year later, for no apparent reason, tersely announcing that: "Personal and professional responsibilities and obligations, in an uncertain economic and political environment, lead me, for the good of the country and the faction, to take a timely step back...".. The events of those days show that this was a foregone conclusion, and he himself was there to facilitate the transition to someone who had been chosen but could not be elected (see also the comments on my "Trojan Horse" article below ). It is even considered that both the "deep PASOK" and the ND moved in favor of him - to serve the mining company.
The fact is that the "cinematic mayor" functioned more as a "Trojan horse", remained inactive and even hostile to the movement, and mainly served the inaction of citizens and the decline of protests. The election put the world in a state of anticipation and false hope for a victory that would come institutionally. Of course, there were also "well-wishers" who asked the people to keep quiet because... "now the elections are coming", while in the meantime the company's bulldozers dug illegally into the mountain, deepening the destruction. However, Yannis Michos, after receiving the anointing from the citizens of the movement, in an interview he gave me shortly before the elections in the Municipality of Aristotelis, said that he does not represent the movement (which nominated him) but all citizens and opinions, and that it is not within his institutional responsibilities what will happen to the mines or support for the persecuted activists.
For the role of Yannis Michos in the region, you can read in detail my reports from that time (a time when I often traveled to Halkidiki, also because of the documentary I made then about the privatization of water, Drops – referring to the gold and copper mines and the struggle of the inhabitants).
What is certain is that it is a paradox of the elections, which are a supreme moment for democracy, that a company is involved in the process instead of the Ministry of Interior taking over. The fact that this company has chronic and privileged relations with the ND, but also with PASOK, is a scandal. Whatever the outcome of the election, this is something that needs to change immediately.
source https://nellypsarrou.com/
photo macrovector, Image license by freepik.com
