CHATTER IN BRUSSELS
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is no stranger to scandal. Remember Predator? A reference to spyware of the same name, the affair involved allegations that members of Mitsotakis’ inner circle had spied on political rivals and journalists. That train wreck was followed by an actual one in 2023 that left 57 dead under circumstances that have yet to be fully clarified.
So far, no bodies have turned up in Mitsotakis’ latest morass, but even his biggest supporters say that the unfolding scandal could be the final nail in his political coffin. A particularly worrying sign for Mitsotakis, the scion of one of Greece’s most-prominent political dynasties, is that members of his own party are already discussing a possible successor.
The story dates back to 2016, when Mitsotakis had just taken control of Greece’s centre-right New Democracy party and was still in opposition. The party, which had been thrust from power by the far-left Syriza party, was down on its luck amid Greece’s debt crisis and strapped for cash. That made building a strong team that could help New Democracy fight its way back to power all the more difficult.
According to a series of recent reports in Greek media, however, the party dealt with the challenge by putting key members of Mitsotakis’ staff on the payroll of an outside Athens advertising agency called Blue Skies.
Thing is, Blue Skies is a bastion of New Democracy power brokers. It belongs to Thomas Varvitsiotis, son of former New Democracy minister Yiannis Varvitsiotis and brother of former minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis. The company’s role in financing Mitsotakis’ staff – which would amount to a political donation – was never publicly disclosed, according to the reports.
Any secret funding of a political party would be a big no-no in Greece, where parties are financed with public funds according to their election results.
What makes the story potentially explosive for Mitsotakis is that Greece’s Documento journal revealed that a number of staff members who worked for New Democracy while allegedly on the Blue Skies’ payroll ended up getting key positions in his government after he won election in 2019.
The party’s critics claim that New Democracy, which is saddled by debt of more than €480 million, was forced to work outside normal channels while in opposition in order to attract talent.
Blue Skies representatives told Documento that the individuals in question were real employees of the agency and engaged with New Democracy in their “free time”. Yet key figures of the so-called “Group of Truth”, a website described by the opposition parties as New Democracy’s “propaganda mechanism”, were also on the company’s payroll.
The opposition claims that this group even attacked the relatives of the 2023 train crash to counter accusations that New Democracy attempted to cover up the true cause of the accident in order to protect the politicians responsible for railways.
Mitsotakis’ take: He backed the “Group of Truth”, admitting that they were ideologically very close to New Democracy, while also insisting that “they maintain their full independence”.
Greece’s justice system has yet to to investigate the matter, a reality that many observers say reflects the deep influence of the oligarchs involved.
At the EPP Congress in Valencia, a Greek government official told Euractiv that while the domestic situation was challenging, there was an alternative to Mitsotakis.
Behind the scenes, Defence Minister Nikos Dendias has been discreetly positioning himself. He has avoided publicly backing the government over either the wiretapping scandal or the train crash. At the same time, his own star has been rising with the public. He has been the face of Athens’ drive to keep Turkey away from EU defence funds, for example, a policy that is popular with Greece’s conservative electorate.
In other words, Mitsotakis, who himself rose from the ministerial ranks to take over the party nearly a decade ago, should watch his back.
