Greece’s Interior Ministry will have to pay a large fine for failing to safeguard the personal data of voters ahead of next month’s European election. Records of voters in the diaspora were leaked to a member of the ruling New Democracy party.
Greece’s Data Protection Authority has imposed a 400,000 euro fine on the Interior Ministry and a 40,000 euro fine on Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, a member of the European Parliament for New Democracy, for violating the privacy of voters.
The monetary penalties come after a scandal around Asimakopoulou, who emailed Greeks in the diaspora on March 1st to promote her re-election bid. The MEP’s emails came on the same day as a separate message from the Interior Ministry which told expats they can cast their votes by mail in the next election.
Several of the recipients of Asimakopoulou’s email said they had never had contact with her previously and didn’t consent to receiving her emails.
Giving no account of how she got the data, on March 15th, Asimakopoulou, who served as vice-chair of the committee on international trade in the last term, withdrew from running in the New Democracy campaign. The party is led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
According to Greece’s data protection authority’s investigation, a file containing data on all voters registered for the June 2023 election got into the hands of the MEP, and the list was sent to an undisclosed New Democracy official handling diaspora affairs.
Following this, the official forwarded it to Asimakopoulou, who used it to send mass campaign emails, the authority said as reported by Politico.
The data protection authority is still looking into New Democracy’s role in the scandal. This may result in more fines. A state prosecutor is also carrying out a separate investigation, and several of the expats have filed lawsuits against Asimakopoulou and the Interior Ministry. The Interior Minister’s top civil servant also resigned over the scandal in March.
The ministry said in a statement that it would “thoroughly study” the authority’s decision before deciding on further legal action.
Greece’s other parties speak out on data scandal
Opposition parties including center-left Syriza and socialist PASOK are now calling for the resignation of the Interior Minister Niki Kerameus.
“It is unacceptable for the Interior Ministry to be turned into New Democracy election center and for personal data of thousands of Greeks expats to be handed over to the ruling party and its candidates—exposing the country and shaking the trust of citizens,” PASOK said in a statement.
Voters head to the polls in Greece on June 9th. Greeks living abroad can mail in their ballots by June 8th.