A few days after Politico shed light on the so-called “Team Truth” and its alleged role in a shadowy propaganda and funding network tied to Greece’s ruling New Democracy party, a fresh report from French daily Libération has added fuel to the fire.
According to Libération, the Greek government faces “serious allegations of covert funding” involving a private company with close ties to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis‘ inner circle. The article refers to a “real labyrinth where the scent of dirty money lingers”—borrowing the phrase from the Greek news site in.gr—as it outlines what is shaping up to be a growing political and financial scandal.
The French report notes that initial revelations emerged around Orthodox Easter in mid-April, a period during which the issue went largely unnoticed. But new disclosures have begun to mount.
At the heart of the controversy are two companies—V+O and Blue Skies—allegedly linked to a network of media outlets and social media activity aimed at swaying public opinion and discrediting political opponents.
The “Team Truth”, a group of anonymous internet users active on social media, has reportedly been engaged in targeted smear campaigns against journalists, civil society figures, and political leaders who do not toe the government line. Their activity is amplified through pro-government online outlets like ellada24.gr.
Investigative journalists Eliza Triantafillou and Thanasis Koukakis of Inside Story report that many anonymous accounts are linked to Blue Skies, a communications firm founded in 2003 and now a subsidiary of V+O. V+O is led by Thomas Varvitsiotis and Yiannis Olympios, both with deep ties to New Democracy.
Varvitsiotis, son of a longtime ND politician and brother of former minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, directed the party’s election campaigns in 2018–2019 and 2023. Olympios, V+O’s CEO and vice-president, served in the early 1990s government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis—father of Kyriakos Mitsotakis—as Foreign Ministry spokesperson. As Libération points out, the political connections are clear.
But the story, the article stresses, goes beyond personal relationships. At issue are allegations of illicit party funding between 2015 and 2019, during which time New Democracy was in opposition. According to reports, employees of Blue Skies were essentially on the party payroll—despite being formally employed by the private company—a potential violation of Greek political financing laws.
Citing the Greek newspaper Documento, Libération reports that more than half of Blue Skies’ 57 employees held senior roles within New Democracy or worked closely with Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself. In effect, they were paid by a private firm while working for the party, raising red flags about illegal campaign financing and the misuse of private-sector resources for partisan ends.
