Spies, Spyware and Scandal: Greece’s Rule of Law in Parliament

A parliamentary session on the state of the rule of law in Greece turned into a sharp political confrontation Thursday, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and opposition leaders traded accusations over a string of controversies that have accumulated over the course of the current government’s tenure.

The debate, requested by the center-left PASOK, centered on three overlapping issues: an illegal wiretapping scandal involving spyware known as Predator, an ongoing investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office into agricultural subsidy fraud, and questions over the professional qualifications of Makarios Lazaridis, the newly appointed Deputy Minister of Rural Development.

Mitsotakis: toxicity, institutions, and the limits of debate

Speaking first, as is customary, Mitsotakis opened with remarks about the tone of political discourse in Greece. His comments were given additional weight by the fact that Deputy Minister Giorgos Mylonakis — a close aide who holds the deputy to the prime minister portfolio — remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition after suffering a possible brain aneurysm on Wednesday. Mitsotakis used the occasion to condemn what he described as the personal cost of aggressive political attacks on public figures and their families, saying that “words can turn into bullets.”