Democracy is failing in the very place it was born. Credit: LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP via Getty Images
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Nothing surprises me more than politicians professing to be surprised that their phones have been tapped. In the world revealed to us by Edward Snowden almost a decade ago, no phone is beyond the reach of motivated eavesdroppers. This is not to say, however, that phone-tapping political opponents has lost its capacity to poison democracy. If those in power can get off after they are caught red-handed, the floodgates of authoritarianism open widely. Soon, what remains of our democratic checks and balances is washed away. This is why Greece’s own Watergate scandal, which has gradually come to light over the past few months, has a significance well beyond the borders of democracy’s supposed cradle.
To put the recent revelations in context, Greece has as proud a tradition of politically motivated phone-tapping as any other country. I still chuckle when I recall what happened in the early hours of a May morning in 2015 during my short stint as Greece’s finance minister. Soon after I had concluded a sensitive conversation with my friend Jeff Sachs, the phone rang. It was Jeff again, this time laughing uncontrollably.
“You will not believe this,” he said. “Five minutes after we hung up, I received a call from the National Security Council. They asked me if I thought you meant what you’d told me.” I had fully expected my phone had been tapped, but two things made Jeff’s news remarkable. First, the eavesdroppers not only had the capacity to instantly recognise that what I had said to Jeff was of real significance, but they must also have had an open line to America’s NSC. Second, they had no compunction whatsoever about revealing that they were tapping my phone!
I was, of course, neither the first nor the highest-ranking Greek politician to have been honoured with such attention. We now know that, back in 2008, the phones of the then-prime minister, his wife, half the cabinet and close to 100 government officials were tapped by US agencies. Nor was eavesdropping monopolised by US agencies. In 2015, operatives of EYP — the Greek intelligence agency — dropped into my ministerial office to check for bugs, and pointed out the window at two vans which, they said, belonged to the German Embassy and contained listening equipment trained at me and my team. A few months later, the Prime Minister I was serving under told me that the EYP’s head had been spreading the toxic lie that I was in cahoots with Wolfgang Schäuble (Germany’s then Finance Minister) to get Greece out of the eurozone.
Clearly, in view of such experiences, I was not at all surprised, let alone shocked, at the news that EYP has recently been eavesdropping on politicians and journalists. So, why am I branding this latest incident as Greece’s Watergate? Why do I go so far as to believe it poses a greater threat to democracy than Richard Nixon’s original?
The short answer is: because Nixon was forced to resign once it was revealed that he had endeavoured to cover up spying. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the current Greek Prime Minister, has in contrast succeeded in neutralising the democratic institutions set up to maintain a semblance of legality — before they neutralised him.
The sequence of events leading to the exposure of Greece’s Watergate scandal began in July 2019, immediately after Mr Mitsotakis won the last general election on behalf of New Democracy, our conservative party. One of the very first decrees he issued, as incoming Prime Minister, was one that gave his office direct control over and responsibility for EYP. “Why on earth is the PM taking over the supervision of EYP?”, I remember a parliamentary colleague asking me that very day. It was, indeed, a curious move.
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SubscribeDon’t give the Greeks too much credit. It seems spying on political opponents has become utterly normal even in America. More and more evidence is coming to light that the Obama/Clinton/DNC machine colluded with the FBI to launder made-up political dirt as actionable intelligence for purpose of destroying then-candidate Trump.
This horse bolted the barn 5 years ago. Of course, if your political opponents are actual Nazis, maybe spying on them isn’t so bad. Major parts of the American Democratic Party have convinced themselves of this idiocy, culminating with President Biden’s infamous “enemies of democracy” speech last week. So I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that American progressives are willing to thro out every legal and political norm in their pursuit of remaining in power. After all, they’re fighting to save democracy!
Greece has been an EU colony since 2015. The Greek government is no more in power than the Greek Royal Family. The Greek Government is merely the window-dressing that has been constructed to hide tyranny.
…Maybe a canary or maybe a canard, but best surely to be wary of Greeks baring grifts?
I’d certainly want to know, in time to make emigration plans, if my country’s finance minister was consulting Jeffery Sachs
The point that the writer lost me was when he criticised Mitsotakis for removing a law requiring the head of the EYP to hold a postgraduate degree. He needed to come up with more than that or it just doesn’t need to be made mention of. It is credentialism he is espousing over and above, you know, real world experience such as running a company (I am assuming G4 is moderately successful). The other claims are shocking but there must be someone else who can write about this case without the sort of bias against ordinary citizens who don’t happen to have the right piece of paper.
If Yanis is correct, the smart move is to meet up with your contact down at the noisy local taverna and discuss your truths and reach agreement with a handshake out of earshot of the phone tappers. Then go back to your respective offices and on the telephone ‘agree’ to the exact opposite. Your opponents phone taps will be worth shit and overtime will be regarded as useless. Problem solved.
This piece is self confessed trite. An opposition member having a go at a political opponent. And one doing a far better job than you or your boss ever did. With a bull faeces argument to justify the importance beyond your own playground to boot. Wow!
Yes Mitsotakis may be doing better for Greece than Yanis and his politics but the point is that modern democracies need to draw an ethical line somewhere. We are all heading to hell (Venezuela, China, the Solomons, Russia, et al) in a hand-cart if the government of a modern western country, such as Greece is meant to be, steps over the line and sanctions the politicisation of its security forces, police etc. Im from Danistan (Victoria Australia) so am fully aware of the authoritarian tendencies in ‘liberal’ politicians!
I am not condoning state sanctioned wire tapping but it is naive to think this is in any way unique since Snowden, Merkel etc. There has been an ongoing domestic feud, at least since the declaration of modern Greece, that has been viscous with Yanis personally affected as many Greeks have been and massive geopolitical consequences to the State. Now is a time of clear and present danger. To my mind and my point is, this piece is trying to internationalise an otherwise unremarkable story with BS justification. Yanis is not a liberal in the Australian sense, he is a leftist, likely left of Dan Andrews. This is the axe Yanis is grinding against a successful conservative (liberal) Greek Government. How many wire taps where there during Tsipras governance? None?
I am not condoning state sanctioned wire tapping but it is naive to think this is in any way unique since Snowden, Merkel etc. There has been an ongoing domestic feud, at least since the declaration of modern Greece, that has been viscous with Yanis personally affected as many Greeks have been and massive geopolitical consequences to the State. Now is a time of clear and present danger. To my mind and my point is, this piece is trying to internationalise an otherwise unremarkable story with BS justification. Yanis is not a liberal in the Australian sense, he is a leftist, likely left of Dan Andrews. This is the axe Yanis is grinding against a successful conservative (liberal) Greek Government. How many wire taps where there during Tsipras governance? None?
Yes Mitsotakis may be doing better for Greece than Yanis and his politics but the point is that modern democracies need to draw an ethical line somewhere. We are all heading to hell (Venezuela, China, the Solomons, Russia, et al) in a hand-cart if the government of a modern western country, such as Greece is meant to be, steps over the line and sanctions the politicisation of its security forces, police etc. Im from Danistan (Victoria Australia) so am fully aware of the authoritarian tendencies in ‘liberal’ politicians!
This piece is self confessed trite. An opposition member having a go at a political opponent. And one doing a far better job than you or your boss ever did. With a bull faeces argument to justify the importance beyond your own playground to boot. Wow!