There was an intense confrontation during OPEN’s “Now Together” show, with Evlampia Revis and Spyros Haritatos, between the executive of the New Democracy Babis Papadimitriou, the secretary of the KO of SYRIZA Theodora Tzakri and the member of KPE PASOK Panagiotis Vlachos about the attacks launched by internet trolls.
Tones rose when journalist Evlambia Revis asked Ms. Tzakri if what Mr. Skourletis said was true, that there were paid slanderers or internet trolls, mercilessly beating anyone who had a different opinion from SYRIZA.
Theodora Tzakri, for her part, replied that, “about this, ask Mr. Skourletis, who also went to the Electronic Crime Prosecution. What I have to say is that for many years, I myself have been a victim of troll attacks. I have learned in my life to say everything in public. We are talking about a number of abusive behaviors (…). Who is the New Democracy “Truth Team” that has launched attacks against us all? Is this the faction of New Democracy looking for an angle on the dime? The Pecha list? Are we serious now?”
Then the leader of the ND, Babis Papadimitriou, took the floor, who emphasized that he was impressed by Ms. Tzakri’s attitude, “because we must all be united in this matter. You can’t have people swearing too often with sexist and racist comments, covered under the veil of anonymity. Skourletis is doing well, he should have done it years ago. But also you Ms. Tzakri, who have indeed been attacked, should in this way say, of course, there should not be dark things, there should not be anonymity, especially when they are connected to the former president and it is obvious that they support the current president Mr. Kasselakis”.
While then Mr. Papadimitriou added “I see that you have a priority. That now “we have to kill Skourletis. We don’t care about Pen Dalaura, nor all the others who cursed us”. Also, you talk about the “Truth Team” (…). It is known who the people are and there is no objection on the ND side if anywhere there is anything with these characteristics to come to light. But I can’t understand why you are suddenly defending people, because I guess there are many people behind the trolls… It hurts both your new leadership and the new profile you want to show as a party.”
“Listen Mr. Papadimitriou who likes to falsify things…” answered Theodora Tzakri, continuing “did you hear me defending anyone? I said the exact opposite.”
“I understood that Skourletis is your enemy at the moment,” said Mr. Papadimitriou.
“All this behavior, which I call abusive, and I’ve been through, do you think it’s something that’s come up now? When Mr. Skourletis was secretary, didn’t he exist?” Ms. Tzakri said on her part.
Then, Mr. Panagiotis Vlahos took the floor, who said “I’m glad that SYRIZA and ND are together in this because they are the ones who filled the internet with toxicity (…)”.
“As far as I am concerned, character assassination attacks have been unleashed since 2013 when I left PASOK” said Ms. Tzakri.
“What do you mean by saying that PASOK has trolls on the internet? We would have had this luxury when it collapsed (…)” answered Mr. Vlachos.
“Really now; Are we kidding each other? Do a google search” emphasized Ms. Tzakri.
