Greece rocked by voter privacy scandal ahead of EU election

Greece’s Interior Ministry will have to pay a hefty fine for failing to safeguard the personal data of voters ahead of next month’s European election, after records of voters living abroad were leaked to a member of the ruling New Democracy party.

The country’s Data Protection Authority on Monday imposed a €400,000 fine on the Interior Ministry and €40,000 fine on Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou, a member of the European Parliament for New Democracy, for violating the privacy of voters.

The fines followed a scandal around Asimakopoulou, who emailed Greeks living abroad on March 1 to promote her reelection bid. The MEP’s outreach came on the same day as a separate message from the Interior Ministry informing expats that they can cast their votes by post in the next election.

Dozens of recipients of Asimakopoulou’s email said they had never had prior communication with her and didn’t consent to receiving her emails.

Failing to account for how she got the data, Asimakopoulou — who was vice-chair of the committee on international trade in the last term — stepped down on March 15 from running in the New Democracy campaign. The party is led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

According to the data protection authority’s investigation, a file containing data on all voters registered for the June 2023 election found its way into the hands of the MEP. The list was sent to a New Democracy official handling diaspora affairs by an unknown individual.

The official then forwarded it to Asimakopoulou, who used it to send mass campaign emails, the authority said.

The data protection authority is still investigating New Democracy’s role in the scandal, which could lead to further fines. A state prosecutor is also conducting a separate investigation and dozens of expats have filed lawsuits against both 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 will “thoroughly study” the authority’s decision before deciding on further legal action.

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 9. Greeks living abroad can mail in their ballots by June 8.