Greece’s ruling New Democracy party was fined after a controversy involving the misuse of diaspora voter email addresses for political advantage in the European Parliament election.
The scandal erupted last March after the records of some 25,000 voters living abroad were leaked to then-European Parliament lawmaker Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, a member of the New Democracy party of PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The MEP used the data in her election campaign without the prior consent of the voters.
Greece’s Personal Data Protection Authority imposed a 30,000 euro penalty on the conservative party and fined its former secretary for diaspora affairs, Nikos Theodoropoulos, an additional 10,000 euro for leaking the voter records to Asimakopoulou.
The latter fine should be paid by New Democracy as Theodoropoulos was employed by the party, the authority said.
Greece’s government was rocked by the leak of diaspora e-mail
When the scandal erupted Interior Ministry General Secretary Michalis Stavrianoudakis tendered his resignation, New Democracy’s Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, Nikos Theodoropoulos, was dismissed and MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou announced that she would not be contesting in the June 2024 European Parliament election.
The internal probe ordered by Mitsotakis found that in May 2023 the list of email addresses was allegedly acquired by an associate of Stavrianoudakis, who forwarded them to Theodoropoulos. The list was later passed on to Asimakopoulou.
Asimakopoulou sent a barrage of emails to voters abroad minutes after they were informed how to vote by mail.
Dozens of Greeks of the diaspora had filed lawsuits against the Greek government demanding compensation after the leaks of their email accounts. Citizens turned against the Ministry of the Interior asking for compensation because it did not protect the data provided to take part in the elections for the European Parliament.
New Democracy Party to appeal
New Democracy announced that it plans to appeal to the decision by Greece’s highest administrative court to impose a fine.
The party claimed that the fine was not imposed due to direct involvement in the email scandal, but rather stemmed from a parallel investigation that uncovered shortcomings in the party’s compliance with personal data protection laws.
“New Democracy disagrees with the authority’s conclusions,” a New Democracy source stated, adding that the party will challenge the decision in court, as the improvements proposed by the authority in managing personal data have already been implemented by the party, while other proposals such as checking on personal devices of its executives would be illegal.
“The investigation found no evidence linking New Democracy to the email data breach,” the sources emphasized, adding that it is clearly mentioned that the leak was carried out independently by those involved, without any party directive or authorization.