Regarding the resignation of the secretary general of the Ministry of the Interior, Michalis Stavrianoudakis, and the decision of Anna Michele Asimakopoulou not to be on the ND’s European ballot paper because of the case with emigrants’ emails, the government representative, Pavlos Marinakis, spoke on Real FM.
“For every suspicion that exists, we order an investigation and take decisions unlike others who keep by their side the irrevocably convicted,” Mr. Marinakis pointed out. He clarified at the same time that the leak is not related to the registration process on the voting letter platform.
Regarding the resignation of Stavrianoudakis, the government representative explained that “he resigned from his current duties for reasons of political responsibility, although he did not have these duties until today, that’s why and all this has nothing to do with the elections, nor with the postal vote . Because we’re talking regarding data that emerged following the vote, but it’s a matter of personal data protection.”
Asked when the emails were given to Ms. Asimakopoulou, Mr. Marinakis replied that “the information was given some time, weeks, months, through the second person, before the email he sent. But, this person had them many months earlier than we understand that we identify it somewhere between the electoral processes of 2023. It is evidence that emerged following the electoral process. It is very important not to attempt instrumentalization. The elections are one thing, the evidence that emerges following the elections is another.”
“So it’s a privacy issue. It is not an issue of election security. It has nothing to do with the postal vote because we are talking regarding a period of time that precedes months, that is, long before the passing of the law on the postal vote but the appointment of the new Government, the Government of June” concluded the government representative.
Following are excerpts from the interview
JOURNALIST: This is the investigation conducted by Maximou Mr. Marinakis and you concluded that the Ministry of Internal Affairs was behind this story?
P. MARINAKIS: There is, as we said in the first briefing for political editors, an ongoing investigation by the Personal Data Protection Authority and the corresponding investigation being carried out by the Ministry of the Interior, but because we did not want there to be any shadow and unanswered questions and because we also saw an attempt by the Opposition to instrumentalize the postal vote in the opposite sense, this investigation reached some conclusions. One conclusion is that some emails went away, while they should not have gone following the election process of May 2023 from an associate of the then Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Mr. Stavrianoudakis, for this reason he took political responsibility and resigned, although he no longer has these duties, has other duties not related to the electorate, or anything related to the election. And through the ND Secretary of Immigration, Mr. Theodoropoulos, it seems that they went according to what emerged from this investigation to the ND MEP, without me being able to know, obviously, if she herself knew.
JOURNALIST: Did Mr. Stavrianoudakis resign from his current duties?
P. MARINAKIS: Mr. Stavrianoudakis resigned from his current duties for reasons of political responsibility, although he did not have these duties until today for this reason and all this has nothing to do with the elections, nor with the postal vote. Because we are talking regarding data that emerged following the vote, but it is a matter of personal data protection.
JOURNALIST: K. Marinaki, when was the information given to Ms. Asimakopoulou?
P. MARINAKIS: The information was given some time, weeks, months, through the second person, before sending the email he did. But, this person had them many months earlier than we understand that we identify it somewhere between the electoral processes of 2023. It is evidence that emerged following the electoral process. It is very important not to attempt instrumentalization. Elections are one thing, the evidence that emerges following the elections is another.
So it’s a privacy issue. It is not an issue of election security. It has nothing to do with the postal vote because we are talking regarding a period of time that precedes months, that is, long before the passing of the law on the postal vote but the appointment of the new Government, the Government of June.
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