After Greece and the European Central Bank agreed post-economic-crash bailout terms in 2010, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published a 146-page report outlining all the key state problems that were seen as having caused Greece’s fiscal crisis.
One of them was corruption, which has eaten away at accountability in Greek politics since the end of military dictatorship in 1974. Sean Hagan, the former general counsel of the IMF described Greece as a tough case, as corruption appeared to be widespread on all levels of public administration.
On winning the 2019 general election, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged those underlying issues. He promised to be ruthless about the symptoms of corruption and fight off accusations of elitism. Far from achieving these goals, however, Mitsotakis’ government now stands accused of spying on journalists and opposition politicians.
