What happens when an oligarch takes on a prime minister? Look to Greece to find out | Alexander Clapp

The drama started three months ago with spyware allegations. Now it prompts a big question: where does power really lie?

It’s been three months, and Greece has been embroiled in one of its greatest political crises in recent memory. It began as a wiretapping scandal. In August, two members of Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government tendered their resignation following reports that the phones of a financial journalist and a rival politician had been sent links to spyware designed to whisk their data away to a shadowy company in Athens. Greece’s press dubbed it the country’s Watergate. “Mr Mitsotakis must give explanations to the Greek people,” said Alexis Tsipras, the head of Greece’s opposition. “A lot of our questions remain to be answered,” the leader of a European parliament committee said, after a fact-finding mission to Greece.

Then, earlier this month, events took a stunning turn. A leftist newspaper called Documento claimed that, in addition to the two Greeks already known to have been targeted, attempts had also been made to sweep up dozens more into the spyware net. They included Mitsotakis’s own cabinet members, newspaper editors and the wife of the governor of Attica. A week later, Documento released nearly 40 additional names. The paper accused the government of involvement – it strongly denied the accusations.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FmLb6xh