ATHENS – Trying to keep alive a spying scandal the New Democracy government wants buried with elections coming, the major rival SYRIZA has demanded to know if the head of the Armed Forces was being monitored.

That’s over the alleged phone tapping of General Konstantinos Floros, one of a number of government officials media reports said were being bugged.

The call came just after his term was renewed for another year with the government anxious about ongoing provocations from Turkey, which has even threatened war in disputes over the seas and other issues.

“The latest reports made serious revelations that the man responsible for our national security was being tracked,” said SYRIZA’s spokeswoman Popi Tsapanidou, a former popular TV presenter.

“The government did not proceed to refute it, or sought the aid of the judicial system to investigate further, and neither did it sue the writers of these stories,” she pointed out, adding that it “affects everyone’s security.”

She added that “If Mr. Floros was being monitored for financial reasons, as we heard, which therefore falls into a context of blackmail, in this case we do not trust (Prime Minister) Mr. Mitsotakis,” she said, reported the state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency ANA-MPA.