The withdrawal of Anna-Michel Asimakopoulou from the electoral battle of the European elections in the shadow of the scandal of the leak of personal e-mails of emigrants has caused uproar, but also mass resignations.
It all started at the beginning of March, when expatriate Greeks accused the ND MEP of having taken the electoral rolls along with their personal data from the Ministry of the Interior in violation of the legislation that allows the delivery of electoral rolls to parties and candidates but has an exception for personal data.
After the fierce reactions of the opposition, as well as the involvement of the judiciary in the investigation of the case, she claimed that she collected the names herself over the last 5 years.
“100 days before the European elections, my office sent a newsletter to Greeks abroad, with contact information that I collected as an MEP during the last 5 years, in order to ask for permission to communicate with them regularly, as I always do, respecting personal data and the GDPR from 2018” she had written in her post. At the time, of course, he blamed the opposition, saying that “some parties are trying to create the feeling that what I did has something to do with the postal vote, it doesn’t.” In other words, he tried to apply the tried and tested government recipe of… “scrupulosity” to her detriment.
Only from the result it seems that things were not like that.
The Maximos palace reacted in a very uncomfortable way to the case, with the government representative Pavlos Marinakis distancing himself as early as March 4, stating that “we are not representatives of the MEPs or the members of the Parliamentary Group, regardless of whether we are in the same space, in the same party. I, therefore, as a Government Representative, convey to you the response of the General Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior. What a Government Representative is obliged to answer for. That is, about what the Government did. Mrs. Asimakopoulou, as an MEP, has given her own answers. From here on, every case in which there are complaints about the violation of personal data is not controlled by the Government, alas, it is controlled by the competent Independent Authority, in this case the Personal Data Protection Authority”.
Both the Personal Data Protection Authority and the First Instance Prosecutor’s Office intervened in the case by launching separate investigations, while subsequently the Prime Minister himself announced that the Maximos Palace is conducting its own investigation.
The first indication that Anna-Michel Asimakopoulou is now considered a “burden” for Kyriakos Mitsotakis was her absence from the “family photo” with the prime minister during the recent EPP conference in Bucharest, despite the fact that she was at the conference.
“Dominoes of resignations for Asimakopoulou
Earlier today, Friday, Anna Michel Asimakopoulou announced her withdrawal from the battle of the European elections, declaring herself a “soldier of the faction”. “My conscience does not allow me to unwittingly participate in the efforts of some to harm the institution of postal voting, the Mitsotakis Government or the prestige of Greece,” said the outgoing MEP.
However, then there was a “wave” of resignations, as the secretary general of the Ministry of the Interior, Michalis Stavrianoudakis, resigned, taking “political responsibility” for the leak, while everything indicates that the dismissal of the person known for his inflammatory posts is expected to be announced within the day. on twitter, ND expatriate secretary, Nikos Theodoropoulos.
The latter, who is allegedly also the person who gave the email lists to Anna Michel Asimakopoulou, had the audacity in the previous days to make posts claiming that “ND and Anna Michel are under an unfair attack”.
In fact, Nikos Theodoropoulos, through interventions and re-publications in X, justified the attitude of Mrs. Asimakopoulou. It is indicative that he republished (1/3), which said that “you are beating Anna Asimakopoulou for her patriotic stance in the European Parliament with lies and slander. All MPs are entitled to get digital copies of the electoral rolls”.
However, the latest developments show a generalized plan to leak personal data of Greek citizens ahead of the European elections. Therefore, the resignations are not enough to “wash away” the scale of the scandal. Now the answers must be given officially by the government and especially by the Minister of the Interior, Niki Kerameos.
It is noted that the government representative Pavlos Marinakis has already admitted that the emails were delivered to MEP Anna Michelle Asimakopoulou by Mr. Theodoropoulos, through Mr. Stavrianoudakis.
At the same time, SYRIZA, with its announcement, lays the blame directly on Niki Kerameos. “What has Maximus discovered, but is not telling?” What does Mrs. Kerameos, who was silent for four whole days after the revelation of the scandal, have to present? The government must, at least for once, provide answers and finally bear the political cost. How did it leak and by whom? Why was the emigrants’ personal data not protected? Have there been other leaks and to where? are the questions that SYRIZA addresses to the government.
And PASOK, however, with its announcement, calls for the resignation of Niki Kerameos.
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