ATHENS – Minister of State Akis Skertsos commented on the phone tapping case in an interview with ANT1 television on Monday, noting that the list of monitored phones was “either fictional or there really was a plan to monitor the prime minister himself and his close associates, to serve other interests and purposes.”

He also stated that “the government and the prime minister have proven that they handle with patriotic responsibility” a series of sensitive issues. He also said that the share of the “investment pie” was changing and “that’s why there is pressure, we have to talk at some point, we’ll talk at the right time”.

According to the approach of the Minister of State, this problem “comes and swells without any evidence and is connected to an existing problem and a failure, which was confessed. And there was an assumption of political responsibility at the highest level in August in relation to (PASOK-Movement for Change leader Nikos) Androulakis.”

“From the lists that are circulating (on eavesdropping), I see a government that is being monitored and not someone else. This should concern us and we should think that either the list is fictional or that there really was a plan to monitor the prime minister himself and his close associates, to serve other interests and purposes. This is the issue that the opposition must answer.”