“I never spoke about fraud, but about altering consciences,” SYRIZA MEP Costas Arvanitis told SKAI, who provoked strong reactions with his statements about “rigged elections” in 2023.
“What I mean is clear,” he said. “What started the story of the interview is that the vice president of the Southwest is trying to diminish the value of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office by talking about blackmail. The second thing I said is that the government had 2 arms: one was monitoring, the other was distributing state money. The judiciary has intervened in how state money was distributed. Isn’t this creating a distortion of conscience on the way to the polls?”
So, Arvanitis continued, rigged elections means “creating conditions for changing consciences.” “The case file speaks of a criminal organisation with a vertical structure. How many ministers has the Southwest changed in the OPEKEPE and how many directors and general secretaries? Whose were these choices? Mr Mitsotakis. In Predator what was the structure like? Vertical. Who had taken the NIS into his office? Mr. Mitsotakis. Who did he put in charge of the NSA? Mr. Kontoleon. Why did he change the law and put in Mr. Kontoleon, who was not qualified at the time? Who was still in charge in his office? His nephew.”
“So let me explain to you politically: they had created such a mechanism which was basically trying to alter the consciences of the citizens and it is still doing so,” he concluded.
