By Nektaria Stamouli
ATHENS — Greece’s opposition parties are demanding an investigation into the government’s ties to a politically connected communications company that they link to shadow financing and online propaganda for the ruling New Democracy party.
The questions about the role of the PR company focus on a host of top New Democracy officials and close associates of center-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — including Thanasis Bakolas, outgoing secretary general of the European People’s Party, the pan-EU grouping of center-right parties.
The little-known communications company at the heart of the political furor is called Blue Skies, and was founded by Thomas Varvitsiotis, the son and brother of former New `Democracy ministers, and Yiannis Olympios.
Blue Skies is an offshoot of the far better known V+O agency, which represents some of Greece’s biggest businesses. It was founded in 2003 with V+O as a shareholder and Varvitsiotis and Olympios as board members. At the time, it shared the same headquarters as V+O.
The opposition’s main allegation is that Blue Skies employed high-profile New Democracy officials as a form of undisclosed political funding and that some 15 of the agency’s employees engaged in social media trolling to promote Mitsotakis’ interests, including attacking the families of victims of the country’s worst rail disaster in 2023. The government denies any link to the agency.
Opposition wants answers
The main opposition center-left Pasok party is demanding “answers about the activities of this company and the links between New Democracy, a propaganda machine and private companies, between which, according to publications, black political money seems to be produced and channelled.”
“After so many revelations, we expect the immediate intervention of the competent judicial authorities,” the party said in a statement on Tuesday.
The opposition’s main allegation is that Blue Skies employed high-profile New Democracy officials as a form of undisclosed political funding and that some 15 of the agency’s employees engaged in social media trolling to promote Mitsotakis’ interests, including attacking the families of victims of the country’s worst rail disaster in 2023. | Sakis Mitrolidis/AFP via Getty Images
Opposition Syriza MEP Kostas Arvanitis called on EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath and the European Parliament “to act accordingly in order to restore the confidence of Greek citizens in the democratic process.”
New Left MP Nasos Iliopoulos complained: “The evidence raises reasonable suspicions that public funding is being used to sustain the government’s propaganda, in flagrant violation of the Constitution and the laws on transparency of political money. This is an extreme institutional aberration that undermines democracy.”
Big party names
More than half of the 57 people officially listed as employees of Blue Skies had high-ranking positions close to Mitsotakis or New Democracy at the same time, according to a report in Documento newspaper. None listed their corporate PR roles on their CVs.
In addition to outgoing EPP Secretary-General Bakolas, the names include Minister of Labor and Social Security Domna Michailidou and Deputy Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis.
Most of them appear to have worked at the company when Mitsotakis took over the party leadership in 2016, and stopped in 2019 when New Democracy was elected and they received official roles. Others, like Orsaki Roussetou, who works in the prime minister’s communications office, continue to appear on the company’s payroll.
When asked specifically about Bakolas, Michailidou, Kyranakis and Roussetou, government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis dismissed the accusations, saying many party members would naturally receive their income from the private sector when not in a paid party role.
“In New Democracy, a party position, a position, that is, in the party, is not a job. In parallel with this position, people work in the private sector,” he told a press briefing.
The opposition’s objection is that Blue Skies looks like a New Democracy shadow operation, but Marinakis called that allegation “a relic of science fiction.” Instead, he said he supported public officials having experience of the private sector.
“I don’t know in which companies these people have worked. It is good that they are working in the private sector and we still want more executives who are working either in the public or private sector and at the same time working for the party they believe in,” he argued.
Bakolas declined to comment. Kyranakis confirmed to local television that he was employed by Blue Skies from 2016 to 2019, when he served as deputy party spokesman, and argued that he was “a normal employee who paid taxes normally.” Government officials did not respond to a request for comment on Roussetou.
When asked about specific politicians’ connections with Blue Skies, representatives for the PR company declined to comment.
In addition to outgoing EPP Secretary-General Bakolas, the names include Minister of Labor and Social Security Domna Michailidou and Deputy Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis. | Konstantinos Tsakalidis/AFP via Getty Images
“Unfortunately, we cannot comment on specific individuals and their role at Blue Skies due to Greek data protection laws, which do not allow companies to provide information on current or former employees,” representatives of the group said in a statement.
More broadly, however, the representatives of the group argued the criticism about indirect party funding “does not correspond to reality.”
“The truth is that, in the past, many of our businesses have employed people with an understanding of the policy and political world to help us navigate the complicated waters of crises. This is a standard market practice followed by our peers in both the Greek and international markets. This reality has been distorted.”
Propaganda machine
The opposition’s demand for a probe into potentially problematic political funding comes on the back of a controversy about the involvement of some 15 employees of Blue Skies in a “propaganda machine” of social media creators aiming to support Mitsotakis’ government. This was revealed in a separate investigation by the “Inside Story” website.
The “Inside Story” investigation focused on a news site called “Team Truth” with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, run by two people working for Blue Skies. The account has sparked particular outrage with its attacks on families of victims of the Tempi train crash, which has become a major political headache for the Mitsotakis government.
The PR company has distanced itself from the activities of those employees, insisting “Team Truth” and other anonymous accounts were not a company project.
“As a company we do not monitor the social media accounts of our employees. However we absolutely condemn any use of anonymity to cause harm or defamation,” the representatives of the company said in a statement.
Ministers and government officials, however, issued statements to defend “the kids comprising Team Truth.”
“I have great respect for them,” Marinakis said. “I have absolutely no involvement with them,” he added, but insisted he supported them against the “smear campaign.”
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