Financing Scandal Shakes Greece’s Ruling New Democracy Party

ATHENS, May 1, 2025 — A governmental tempest has erupted successful Greece arsenic absorption parties telephone for an probe into alleged connections betwixt Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s New Democracy enactment and Blue Skies, a communications steadfast accused of covert governmental backing and orchestrating online propaganda.

Blue Skies, founded by Thomas Varvitsiotis—son and member of erstwhile New Democracy ministers—and Yiannis Olympios, is an offshoot of the salient V+O agency. The absorption alleges that Blue Skies employed high-ranking New Democracy officials arsenic a signifier of undisclosed financing and that 15 of its employees engaged successful societal media trolling to bolster Mitsotakis’s image, including targeting families of victims of the 2023 Tempi obstruction disaster, Greece’s worst bid crash.

Key Figures Implicated

A Documento paper study revealed that implicit fractional of Blue Skies’ 57 listed employees held elder roles wrong New Democracy oregon adjacent to Mitsotakis, including:

• Thanasis Bakolas, outgoing European People’s Party (EPP) caput general.
• Domna Michailidou, Minister of Labor and Social Security.
• Konstantinos Kyranakis, Deputy Minister of Transport.
• Orsaki Roussetou, a existent subordinate of Mitsotakis’s communications team.

Many reportedly worked astatine Blue Skies betwixt 2016, erstwhile Mitsotakis assumed enactment leadership, and 2019, erstwhile New Democracy won the election. Some, similar Roussetou, stay connected the company’s payroll. None disclosed their PR roles publicly.

Opposition Demands Action

The center-left Pasok enactment demanded clarity connected “the links betwixt New Democracy, a propaganda machine, and backstage companies channeling achromatic governmental money.” Pasok urged judicial involution pursuing caller revelations. Syriza MEP Kostas Arvanitis called connected EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath and the European Parliament to reconstruct spot successful Greece’s antiauthoritarian process. New Left MP Nasos Iliopoulos labeled the allegations an “institutional aberration,” citing imaginable misuse of nationalist funds for propaganda successful usurpation of transparency laws.

Government and Blue Skies Respond

Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis rejected the accusations, calling claims of a shadiness cognition “science fiction.” He defended enactment members’ private-sector work, stating, “Party positions are not jobs. People enactment successful the backstage assemblage alongside their roles.” Marinakis emphasized the worth of private-sector acquisition for nationalist officials.

Kyranakis admitted to moving astatine Blue Skies from 2016 to 2019, describing himself arsenic a “normal employee” who paid taxes. Bakolas declined to comment, and nary effect was provided regarding Roussetou. Blue Skies cited Greek information extortion laws, refusing to sermon circumstantial employees but denying indirect enactment funding. The steadfast called the allegations a distortion of modular manufacture practices, noting that hiring politically knowledgeable unit is communal successful situation management.

Propaganda Allegations

A abstracted “Inside Story” probe exposed a “propaganda machine” involving 15 Blue Skies employees, notably linked to “Team Truth,” a quality tract with a ample societal media following. Run by 2 Blue Skies staff, the tract has drawn outrage for attacking Tempi clang victims’ families, a delicate contented for Mitsotakis’s government. Blue Skies distanced itself, stating that “Team Truth” was not a institution task and condemning harmful anonymous accounts. Marinakis defended “Team Truth” contributors, denying engagement but praising their efforts against a “smear campaign.”

The ungraded raises superior questions astir governmental transparency and accountability, with absorption parties pressing for judicial scrutiny to code imaginable violations of Greece’s antiauthoritarian principles.