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Reuters
ATHENS — Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated on Monday that he was unaware that Socialist Party (PASOK) leader Nikos Androulakis' phone was tapped in 2021.
The case that broke down last week sparked an uproar, with opposition parties calling for a thorough investigation and labeling Mitsotakis' personal Watergate revelations.
The party's prime minister, who faces a re-election race next year, apologized to Andororakis on Saturday, saying he knew nothing about the intelligence services wiretapping and he would not have approved.
Mitsotakis added in his televised speech on Monday: I didn't know and obviously never allowed it.
He said he only learned about the Androulakis wiretapping "only a few days ago" and also announced measures to increase control over the operations of the EYP intelligence service and to increase transparency over its practices. .
He said the EYP intelligence service underestimated the political aspects of its surveillance, which, while law-abiding, were "politically unacceptable."
A member of the European Parliament since 2014 and in December 2021 he was elected PASOK party leader. said he knew. He did not disclose the source of the information.
Earlier in the day, EYP head Panagiotis Contreon and his chief of staff Grigoris Dimitriadis unexpectedly resigned over the matter.
PASOK was his third largest party in Greece and for decades the main rival of Mitsotakis' conservative party, the New Democracies. (Reported by Georgiopoulos and Renee Maltezou, edited by John Stonestreet)
