MacroPolis

The government's efforts to put potentially damaging issues behind it as quickly as possible met with limited success this week, as opinion polls continued to show New Democracy suffering further setbacks, albeit not to the benefit of its main rivals.

Parallel investigations into the security breach that allowed a government MEP to send mass emails to overseas voters in the run-up to the European Parliament elections will continue, although the politician in question has been removed from ND's yet-to-be-announced list for the June vote.

The leak of the voter database is currently the subject of separate investigations by the Interior Ministry, a Greek prosecutor and the country's data protection authority, while several expatriate Greeks have filed separate lawsuits against the Greek state for failing to protect their personal data.

The withdrawal last week of New Democracy MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou from the upcoming European Parliament elections, and the resignations of a senior Interior Ministry official and New Democracy's head of diaspora affairs, followed dozens of reports that Asimakopoulou had emailed Greek voters on the overseas electoral register. The resignations followed a statement by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that his office had conducted its own investigation into the leak, which gave the MEP access to voter data.

Although the results of the investigation have not been made public, chief government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis suggested that the politician and the officials in question had fallen on their swords when the sequence of events was revealed. Marinakis claimed that the email list was leaked from the Interior Ministry during the tenure of the caretaker government, which was appointed between the first and second rounds of national elections in June 2023.

The government claims that the timing exonerates the current interior minister, Niki Kerameus, from any involvement in the leak. It also argues that the breach was strictly limited to the list of voters who had registered to vote in their country of residence in last year's national elections and had no bearing on the ongoing process of registering overseas voters for postal voting in the European Parliament elections.

Asimakopoulou's withdrawal from the list has left New Democracy scrambling to find a replacement candidate before the official announcement, scheduled for 5-7 April. The party leadership would prefer a female candidate, but would also like to find someone with right-wing credentials.

The furore over the data breach exacerbates the government's trust problems. The possibility that voters' personal data may have been leaked to a member of the ruling party's European Parliament undermines the trust that voters have in the centre-right government after the prolonged tensions over allegations of illegal eavesdropping that have dogged the Mistotakis government for the past few years.

This steady erosion of trust, which includes the perception by many Greeks that the authorities are trying to stifle the investigation into the Tempe train crash, has taken its toll on the government. New Democracy has seen some of its support erode in recent months. However, the impact is not as obvious as it could have been due to the fragmented opposition, which means that the conservatives still have a large lead over their nearest rivals.

A poll by Marc for the weekly Proto Thema puts New Democracy's projected support ahead of this summer's European Parliament elections at 35 pct, well ahead of its rivals.

SYRIZA is in second place with 13.5 pct, ahead of PASOK in third place with 12.8 pct. Marc's sounding was the latest opinion poll to indicate that the party of Stefanos Kasselakis, who has just begun his short military service, has regained second place at the expense of its centre-left opponent.

The Communist Party (KKE) is in fourth place with 9.5 pct, closely followed by Greek Solution with 9 pct. The other smaller parties all garner support of around 3 pct or less, reinforcing the impression that the ultra-nationalist Greek Solution is the only small party to have benefited from the recent political turmoil.

Meanwhile, an Ipsos poll for Euronews on the EP elections showed ND leading the projected results with 35 pct, with SYRIZA and PASOK tied for second place with 13.6 and 13.4 pct respectively. The Communist Party KKE is in fourth place with 9 pct, with the ultra-nationalist Greek Solution close behind on 8.7 pct.

As well as the email scandal, another thorny issue for the government - the Tempe train crash - resurfaced this week. On Monday, the European Parliament's Petitions Committee (PETI) agreed to a request by relatives of the 57 people who died in the crash to keep the file on the incident open and to refer it to two other European Parliament committees, on transport (TRAN) and justice (LIBE).

Monday's events in Brussels came just a few days after the head of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), Laura Kovesi, caused an uproar in Greece over comments she made to local media. Kovesi, whose institution is investigating the Tempe crash for possible misuse of EU funds, complained that EPPO couldn't carry out a full investigation because parliament hadn't agreed to lift the immunity of two former transport ministers, including New Democracy MP Kostas Karamanlis. Her office has indicted 23 officials in connection with the safety project, which was not completed when the Tempe crash occurred just over 12 months ago.

On Wednesday, Parliament debated the conclusions of the Greek MPs' inquiry into the crash. It adopted the ruling party's position, which did not assign any political responsibility, but blamed the disaster on a station manager and a train driver.

According to the final report, the accident could have been avoided if standard safety procedures had been followed. The conduct of the inquiry itself was condemned by opposition parties, who accused the government of using its majority on the panel to suppress vital information and protect its own politicians from scrutiny.

The debate was marked by the absence of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was represented by Minister of State Makis Voridis, while only around 20 of the government's 158 MPs were present, a fact noted by several opposition speakers in their speeches. Voridis denied accusations that the government had orchestrated a cover-up, suggesting that the opposition lacked concrete evidence to back up its claims.