A peculiar… gathering of people who have time and again presented themselves as champions of the rule of lawand played a decisive role at critical moments for the Greek state (not with particular success) is expected to take place today.
Specifically, at the event for the book by the former vice president of ADAE, Aikaterini Papanikolaou, the following are expected to attend: Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Evangelos Venizelos, Christos Rammos, and Konstantinos Menoudakos. A lineup that’s hard to overlook, as their names are linked to some of the most controversial political and public disputes of recent years, for all the wrong reasons.
An explosive lineup
First among… equals is Prokopis Pavlopoulos, who harbors bitterness that K. Mitsotakis did not renew his term as Presidency of the Republic. As Minister of Public Order, he witnessed Athens descend into days of unprecedented violence and destruction in December 2008. And he himself essentially did nothing. Moreover, those images continue to serve as a point of reference for those who believe that the state demonstrated an inability to restore order at that time.
At the same time, he was accused by his political opponents of “massive permanent appointments and hiring of contract workers”, a policy choice that, for his critics, was a hallmark of the clientelist state that had been expanding for decades.
Later, as President of the Republic, he chose to maintain an extremely low-key profile during one of the most turbulent periods of the post-dictatorship era.
From the 2015 referendum to the dramatic negotiations of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, Mr. Pavlopoulos was accused by many of limiting himself to a passive observer role, avoiding interventions that many considered necessary. Especially when the country was on the brink of collapse.
At his side will be the former president of PASOK, Evangelos Venizelos, who is also embittered because—as the gossip goes—Mr. Mitsotakis did not nominate him for President. Undoubtedly one of the most brilliant parliamentarians of his generation, but also a politician who continues to bear the burden of some of the most painful decisions of the bailout era.
The infamous “surcharge” via the Public Power Corporation (PPC) bills remains, for thousands of citizens, the most emblematic example of the tax suffocation of that era. The PSI is still the subject of even more debate today. The restructuring of Greek debt was presented at the time as a national success and a necessary choice to save the country, but thousands of small bondholders saw their life savings vanish, while pension funds lost a significant portion of their reserves.
At the same time, his tenure as leader of PASOK coincided with the party’s greatest electoral collapse in its history, a fact that continues to haunt him at every public appearance. That is, after all, why he was also accused by George Papandreou, whom he managed to oust from Cannes through specific maneuvers.
The panel wouldn’t be complete without the third… embittered member of the group, Christos Rammos. The former president of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (ADAE), who wanted to continue his term at the independent authority, has even been accused by government officials of not being quite so “nonpartisan” on the much-discussed issue of surveillance—as his position requires—but rather of roughly “backed” the reckless and populist positions of SYRIZA under Tsipras and the PASOK led by Nikos Androulakis. We should also note that he had been nominated by Alexis Haritsis for the position of President of the Republic.
Konstantinos Menoudakos, also a former president of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (ADAE) and former president of the Council of State, is expected to be present. His public statements during the controversy over the wiretaps sparked debate even within the legal community.
It is telling that following the decision by the prosecutor of the Supreme Court to dismiss the case, he claimed that the Greek justice system suffers from very low levels of credibility, noting that there are numerous factors and officials responsible for bringing it to this point. Consequently, his critics argued that his interventions exceeded the bounds of neutrality expected of a senior judicial official and went so far as to call into question, albeit indirectly, the judgments of the judiciary itself.
The facts speak for themselves
In short, at the event marking the release of A. Papanikolaou’s book titled “Communications Secrecy and National Security,” the “champions” of the rule of law against the “bad” government, during whose term, according to all authoritative European Union reports, progress was made in these specific areas—a fact that the participants are unlikely to acknowledge.
