PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis has filed a lawsuit accusing Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis of defamation. The complaint stems from a series of public statements, social media posts and declarations the minister made about a property owned by Androulakis’s family in Heraklion, Crete.

The dispute centers on a lease agreement signed in April 2010, under which the property was rented to Ktimatologio S.A., the state-run land registry agency, following an open competitive tender that drew eight bids. According to PASOK, the tender specifications had been set under the New Democracy government of Kostas Karamanlis, and the bidding process and evaluation of offers had already been completed before the lease was signed.

Androulakis’s parents, not the PASOK leader himself, were the lessors and the recipients of the rent. Androulakis subsequently acquired a minority stake in the property, receiving a 10% share in 2011 and another 10% in 2013. From 2013 onward, he collected 20% of the rental income, corresponding to his ownership share.

PASOK says Georgiadis repeatedly and publicly claimed the tender was rigged in Androulakis’s favor, that the PASOK leader personally collected between 1.2 and 1.5 million euros in rent from the state, and that the money was held in accounts abroad. Georgiadis also described the property, in his own words, as a dilapidated wreck renovated at taxpayers’ expense. PASOK says the renovation was carried out by the family at the tenant’s direction and at the family’s own cost, as stipulated in the lease contract, and that Androulakis’s foreign deposits derive from his European Parliament salary, as documented in years of asset declarations.

“When a minister knowingly presents falsehoods as established fact, seeking to brand a political opponent as corrupt while claiming he has enriched himself through illegal acts, that is not political criticism. That is an organized attempt to destroy a person’s reputation,” PASOK said in a statement.

Georgiadis responded immediately on X, saying he would request the lifting of his parliamentary immunity so the case could go to trial, and would then file a civil suit against Androulakis for moral damages. “It is impossible for me to believe that a Greek court will convict a politician for political criticism,” he wrote. He added that anyone who makes accusations against others must also be prepared to face accusations and criticism in return, and closed: “The rest we will discuss in court, because political criticism will not be criminalized in the country that gave birth to democracy.”