In his Sunday (20/1/2025) editorial, Documento publisher Kostas Vaxevanis speaks about the web of entanglement and the parastatal mechanism established by Kyriakos Mitsotakis to govern the country, revealing new information about Blue Skies, the company linked to Varvitsiotis and Olympios, which, based on the evidence, had numerous individuals on its payroll who were in fact working for New Democracy (ND).
Describing it as “the epitome of the distortion of political functioning,” he explains that some of these individuals engaged in smear campaigns and character assassinations against government opponents, while others paved the way for Mitsotakis’s rise to power with money from businessmen paying for fictitious services.
Under Mitsotakis, “the real centers of power have shifted toward a parastatal axis that ensures there will be neither oversight nor punishment,” he emphasizes, making extended reference to the wiretapping scandal.
“Today there is an all-powerful system that dictates its own rules. Its victim can be anyone—not only political opponents, but also once-friendly businessmen who refuse to submit,” he says.
“Mitsotakis’s hold on power no longer rests on acceptance, but on desperation,” notes Vaxevanis, warning that “the only certainty is that the country is being destroyed.”
“The Oligarchs Are a Thing of the Past”
In his editorial titled “The Oligarchs Are a Thing of the Past,” Vaxevanis states:
The era when Kostas Karamanlis described Greece’s political life as a barter system between five oligarchs and the government now seems almost romantic. The brutality with which a small group of people control Greece’s fate without checks and balances is chilling. The current model isn’t the traditional relationship between business elites and media that determines governments. Even the term entanglement, once used by Konstantinos Mitsotakis to describe the entrenched power structures, now seems inadequate.
Under the younger Mitsotakis, power isn’t entangled or merged through established hierarchies and rules. In the Mitsotakis system, a tax accountant with connections to a corrupt tax authority can wield more power than the Finance Minister and doesn’t even need directives. He operates autonomously within the corrupt environment tailor-made for that purpose.
This power system is neither vertical nor horizontal. It’s strangely branched, where influence may come from a shady businessman with access to EU funding, a bishop, and a blackmailing media owner. The true centers of power have shifted to a parastatal axis that guarantees impunity.
The surveillance system developed in recent years has brought unprecedented features to what we call political life. Politicians from both the opposition and the government who were under surveillance became targets of blackmail. Key institutional figures were turned into pawns by those spying on them. This was made possible not only by personal cowardice but also by their involvement in corruption cases that were recorded. Why wouldn’t a prosecutor, a senior military officer, a publisher, or a politician defend themselves against their wiretapper unless they had skeletons in their closet?
The ineffective response to the Mitsotakis system and the broader opposition’s entanglement in rhetorical debates may be due not only to incompetence but also to blackmail. After mishandling the pandemic, Mitsotakis prevailed against an opposition that internalized his dilemmas as its own.
He managed to whitewash scandals involving his party and himself—like the Novartis case (his relationship with Frouzis is proven via email)—and dragged his opponents to special courts. His questionable financial disclosures were “cleansed” once when SYRIZA was in power, and again with its silent complicity in opposition.
Meanwhile, political discourse has become exactly what Mitsotakis wanted: an analysis of PR tactics and poll predictions. Rather than condemning the phenomenon of Stan Greenberg-style manipulation as a distortion of politics, parties sought their own Greenberg and their own favorable poll.
Today’s Documento revelations—that a company with deep ties to the Maximos Mansion and Mitsotakis personally had people on its payroll actually working for ND—epitomize the distortion of democratic function. The potential legal and tax liabilities (illegal party financing, tax evasion via fake expenses) may be the least of the problem. The “employees” of Blue Skies had two primary “tasks”:
Some ran smear campaigns and character assassinations of government critics through anonymous social media accounts. Others prepared Mitsotakis’s rise to power, funded by businessmen who paid for fake services. In reality, they were lavishly paying for Mitsotakis’s ascent.
Those who invested in Mitsotakis’s rise in this way have evidently been repaid—with fat contracts and government immunity.
Democracy has been undermined. While elections are formally based on the people’s free will, the question is: who shapes that will, and how? The answer is: truth-twisters flooding the internet with millions of euros and lies.
Where once political rules—and even entanglement—existed, there is now a dominant system writing its own rules. Its victims include not only political adversaries but also once-friendly businessmen who refuse to kneel.
Entrepreneurship in Greece is now dependent on a blackmail system in which the tax authority (AADE) is involved. Businesspeople are extorted through anonymous complaints and rigged tax audits.
The political system not only proves incapable of delivering justice but, through its passivity, legitimizes this dirty framework. Mitsotakis’s hold on power no longer stems from popularity but from despair. Disillusioned and demoralized citizens see themselves as powerless to choose solutions—and Mitsotakis as a necessary evil.
The next day is uncertain. The only certainty is that the country is being destroyed. Greece will soon have to pay the financial price for what is presented as a European defense strategy. It is already paying for its involvement—through Mitsotakis—in the global conflict over Ukraine.
The top concern for those in power now seems to be how to get photographed with the new U.S. ambassador to Athens—and express sympathy for the once-demonized Donald Trump.
