Greece’s political kitchen is boiling after Independent Greeks allegations that a middleman attempted to bribe an party MP with 2-3 million euro in order to vote in favor of government presidential candidate Stavros Dimas. After Independent Greeks chairman Panos Kammenos revealed at the press conference that he first met the middleman at the office of Antonis Samaras sometime before end of 2013, a picture showing the middleman together with Panos Kammenos during a meeting with SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras has been uploaded in all websites and broadcast even by state NERIT TV. Greek media suspect Nea Dimokratia for the circulation the picture.
The picture is from a meeting that took place on 22. March 2013 and the alleged middleman is sitting on the right of Kammenos. Worth noting is that while IndepGreeks chairman did not name the ‘middleman’ (see: briber), the Greek news websites posted the picture together with the name of the middleman. government-close newspaper To Vima even published his name “Giorgos Apostolopoulos” adding that the alleged middleman has served as adviser to PM George Papandreou (PASOK), to Antonis Samaras and Panos Kammenos.
The picture is from a meeting that took place on 22. March 2013 and the alleged middleman is sitting on the right of Kammenos.
Some websites show the picture hiding the face of the alleged middleman, some others do not.
“This is Giorgos Apostolopoulos, who at the time the photo was taken was a close associate of Panos Kammenos and that he even participated in meeting of the Chairman of Independent Greeks with the president of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras,” notes Proto Thema.
ND speaks of IndepGreeks-SYRIZA plot
The argument of Nea Dimokratia is apparently that the party of PM Antonis Samaras has nothing to do with the alleged attempted bribe and that the middleman was an associate of Panos Kammenos and the Independent Greeks. Further, that his presence at a meeting with SYRIZA strengthens the claims of ND that SYRIZA and Independent Greeks are plotting against Nea Dimokratia by raising accusation that it allegedly attempted to bribe lawmakers and win the Presidential election.
The Secretary of Nea Dimokratia spoke of a “badly set provocation” stressing that the middleman was an assosciate of Panos Kammenos.
Government spokeswoman and ND MP, Sofia Voultepsi spoke of a “bad theater performance”, asked to the immediate release of the evidence and collected data and even threatened to take legal action.
Fact is that Panos Kammenos admitted at the press conference earlier on Friday, that the middleman was his economics adviser for some time. Towards summer of 2013, the middleman left Kammenos in order to get a job at Pireaus bank.
PS is the way of thinking of Greek political parties too complicated to understand? You be a quick player of Conspiracy-ABC, be an expert in propaganda tactics and have a PhD in Machiavelism in order to get a clue of how political games are been played in Greece.
