Simitis created Independent Authorities, Mitsotakis undermines them…

Tomorrow evening (Monday, November 6) an event in honor of former Prime Minister Kostas Simitis is planned. The government representative has announced that he will attend Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The political philology (or paraphilology) of recent years is dominated by the “theory” that the current prime minister is moving in “centrist” footsteps, adopting the “reformist” and “modernizing” views and methods of the honored former prime minister tomorrow.

This “theory” has no basis in reality. But it has found fertile ground in recent years, mainly due to the (politically stupid) behavior of SYRIZA towards Simitis, which was one of the reasons for the formation and longevity of the anti-SYRIZA front. Thus, the ND of Kyriakos Mitsotakis managed to bring a part of the former PASOK voters to its own ballot box, which ensured its electoral victories in 2019 and 2023.

However, the policy of ND and Mitsotakis personally, in specific fields, has nothing to do with Simitis’ policy. The former prime minister himself has deconstructed the government narrative on today’s development by pointing it out unscrupulous action of foreign profit-making funds.

He wrote features: “In most cases, investments, real estate and speculative fund deals dominate, which are often financed with loans from Greek banks! That is, with our national capital, foreigners gain control of our economy. This is not called foreign investment, but speculative opportunism».

For a year now, the news has been dominated by the topic of wiretapping. What is the attitude of the government and personally of the prime minister? In addition to the desperate attempt to cover up the scandal at all costs, the disparaging and threatening behavior towards the competent Independent Authority (IAEA) prevails. As its president, Supreme Judge Christos Rammos, has denounced, he received insults and threats from government officials. Mr. Mitsotakis himself accused him from the floor of the Parliament that has a “personal agenda”.

What does this behavior of the current prime minister have to do with the concepts of “modernization” and “reform”? None.

First, most Independent Authorities were instituted during the government term of Kostas Simitis. In any case, the two that are related to the scandalous case of surveillance: the Personal Data Protection Authority established by law 2472 of 1997 and the Authority for Ensuring the Privacy of Communications (ADAE), the one that the current government has been ordered to “remove”. was instituted in 2003, by law 3115.

Secondly, Simitis would never say from the floor of the Parliament that the president of an Independent Authority has a “personal agenda”. Because he knows that this constitutes a direct undermining of the institutions. Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it.

Third, Simitis would never adopt the theory that wiretapping revelations are “gossip”, especially if these revelations are made by an independent authority (ADAE), which his own government had established. And he would never allow his minister to utter the word “gossip” about a scandal uncovered by the independent authority. It was uttered by Borides and Mitsotakis allowed him to do so.

The institutional and political behavior of the current prime minister towards the independent authorities has nothing to do with that of Kostas Simitis. One established them, the other undermines them. Simitis believes that they should exist institutional counterweights to the exercise of power, that’s why he made Independent Authorities. Kyriakos Mitsotakis believes in his absolute power. That is why every method is used in order to discredit these Authorities, to neutralize the institutional counterweights and to cover up the scandal. After all, his absolute power is not threatened.

That is why the attempted comparison and identification of the current Mitsotakis period with the Simitis period, under the cloak of the concepts of “reform” and “modernization”, is misleading.

The saying of the Byzantine monk and historian Georgios Amartolos fits here: “…the phenomena are different, the concepts are different”.