Opposition calls for Greek Prime Minister to resign over phone-tapping scandal

Greek main opposition party has called for the country's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign over the recent phone-tapping scandal that saw his General Secretary and Head of Greece's Intelligence Agency resign.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis "did not have the courage to do what is self-evident in every liberal European democracy: to resign," SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance party said on Monday about the phone-tapping of PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis.

Responding to a televised message on Monday morning, in which Mitsotakis said that despite its being legally approved by a prosecutor he would not have allowed it had he known of it, Syriza called him "arrogant and unrepentant, besides being a liar." The PM wanted to be absolved of the issue, the main opposition party said, "asserting that he did not know what was going on on the most nationally sensitive sectors of the executive state."

The prime minister "praised the National Intelligence Service (EYP) for its national role, but in his effort to shirk his own responsibility did not hesitate to present it as a service that is both disorganized and beyond control," Syriza said. Moreover, the party charged, Mitsotakis did not explain why EYP decided to tap Androulakis' phone specifically or touch upon phone-tapping of others, including journalists, politicians, and plain citizens.

Instead, Syriza said, Mitsotakis was convincing in his televised address in one respect, that "he is guilty and that he shows no hesitation before any lie, hypocrisy or misinformation in order to save himself." The story has broken out, however, "and the truth will come to light whether he wants to or not," Syriza said.