The President of PASOK – Movement for Change, Nikos Androulakis, is filing a complaint today with the Athens Public Prosecutor against Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis for defamation and verbal abuse, in connection with a series of public statements, posts, and remarks through which he repeatedly disseminated false and defamatory allegations against the President of PASOK.
PASOK sources note that the President’s action today does not concern a personal dispute between political figures. It concerns the deliberate dissemination of false and defamatory allegations by a government minister with the aim of smearing the leader of the official opposition and fabricating an artificial image of a “scandal” where there is nothing illegal, nothing hidden, and nothing reprehensible.
Mr. Georgiadis repeatedly spread false claims that there was allegedly a “rigged” tender, that the property was selected due to political favoritism, that Nikos Androulakis received exorbitant rents of 1.2 to 1.5 million euros from the State, and that the money from the lease is in overseas accounts. In fact, he even used the phrase that taxpayers “renovated a shack with the Greek people’s money.”
The reality is entirely different and is proven by all relevant documents and data:
- The property in question was registered in the Land Registry on April 20, 2010, following an open and transparent competitive bidding process involving eight (8) bids.
- The tender specifications had been established under the New Democracy government and Kostas Karamanlis, and the tender process and evaluation of bids had in fact already taken place.
- N. Androulakis did not participate in the bidding process, which took place in 2009; instead, his parents, who were the landlords and collected the rent, participated.
- Nikos Androulakis subsequently acquired a minority share in the property. Specifically, 10% of the property was transferred to him in 2011 and another 10% in 2013. Consequently, he received 20% of the rent corresponding to his rights, starting in 2013.
- The total actual income received by Nikos Androulakis bears no relation to the false amounts of 1.2 to 1.5 million euros attributed to him by Mr. Georgiadis.
- He never transferred the rental income outside of Greece. The deposits abroad come from his earnings during his term in the European Parliament, as evidenced by his financial disclosure statements spanning many years.
- The property was not renovated with public funds, but under the lease agreement, his parents were required to carry out, at the tenant’s direction, a series of works described in detail in the contract.
When a minister publicly presents as “proven” facts that he knows to be false, attempting to create associations of corruption, collusion, and illicit enrichment, this goes beyond the bounds of political debate and constitutes an organized character assassination.
Democracy and public life cannot function with organized smear campaigns and fabricated “scandals.”
This is precisely what today’s initiative seeks to stop: to set a clear limit on political vulgarity and slander against political opponents.
For this reason, the case is now being brought before the courts so that Mr. Georgiadis’s false and defamatory allegations may be judged by the competent judicial authorities based on the facts.