Spy Scandal Won’t Derail Election Chances, Says Greek Prime Minister
(Bloomberg) -- For a political leader caught up in a James Bond-style spy scandal, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is confident he can ride it out and even rule alone in elections next year.
“We have a pretty good chance of winning an absolute majority after the next elections,” the premier told Bloomberg during an interview in New York.
Mitsotakis is under fire following disclosures over the summer that the country’s national intelligence service spied on Nikos Androulakis, the leader of Greece’s opposition socialist Pasok party, and a reporter investigating powerful business figures.
Public anger has been directed at Mitsotakis because oversight of the spy agency falls under him. The scandal, which has been labeled as a kind of Greek Watergate, stoked concern of the use of surveillance.
Mitsotakis, who has denied any knowledge or involvement, has also apologized repeatedly. “This is clearly a liability. It’s not an asset,” he said.
The bet for him politically, is whether the uproar will subside between now and when he faces re-election, which must happen before July 2023.
Electoral changes made by the previous government of Alexis Tsipras make it much harder to form a government without a coalition partner. The most recent polls show that the premier’s party will get the most votes, but as things stand now, it still seems uncertain that he will be able to shape a stable government on his own.
But Mitsotakis disagrees.
“I’m not saying that people don’t care. I’m saying that at the end of the day, there are other issues people care more about,” he said. “The second election is going to take place with what we call an enhanced proportional representation system, which allows us to form a government on our own if we reach 37, 38% of the popular vote, which is perfectly doable.”
A poll conducted for SKAI TV showed on Wednesday night that Mitsotakis’s party gets 34.5% of the votes, leading by eight percentage points from the Tsipras’s party.
Political stability is one of the two main keys for Greece to regain the investment grade status that it lost before its bailout program in 2010, according to the premier. S&P Global Ratings have Greece just one notch below the investment zone, while Moody’s Investors Service three steps ahead.
“I think the outcome of the election is important,” Mitsotakis said, adding that the second main element is “making sure that we stick to our path and we meet our targets for a primary deficit of under 2% this year and a primary surplus next year.”
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