The government and PASOK continue to clash over the OPEKEPE, with government sources blaming Charilaou Trikoupi (PASOK central offices) for a fragmentary reading of the publications and the latter accusing the Maximou Mansion of a cover-up in the party of mismanagement and corruption.

“It seems that in PASOK, they read the newspaper reports in bits and pieces, glossing over their main conclusions,” government sources said.

The same sources add that regarding today’s Kathimerini publication, “we refer to the answer given in a radio interview with SKAI by government spokesman and Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, Pavlos Marinakis:

“From what I read, without having any reason to refute Kathimerini and its reportage, what is the conclusion? That the president of OPEKEPE, Mr. Simandrakos, in 2023, that is after the elections and before the Christmas holidays, thought that some “red” as he called them AFMs should not be paid. If you look at the report, I think it is 9,300 AFMs. He was saying that the president of OPEKEPE was saying that “I think that these should not be paid”. And Maximos’ associates, as the article says, because Mr. Yannis Bratakos was then Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, automatically let Mr. Simandrakos block these tax IDs.”

“That is, the 2023 payments were made exactly as decided by the then president of OPEKEPE, with the blocked ‘red’ TINs out of the payments.

The exact opposite, that is, of what PASOK ‘understood’,” the same sources added.

PASOK: Maximou knew and covered up the mismanagement party

This was preceded by a statement from PASOK, which accused the government of a cover-up.

The report said that the government had denounced a cover-up.

“The hypocritical ‘I didn’t know, I didn’t know’ show that the prime minister has been putting on in recent days has come down with a bang,” the PASOK statement said.

The Meximou Mansion was not only aware of the party of mismanagement and corruption at OPEKEPE, but has been covering it up ever since, PASOK stressed in a statement, in response to today’s “Kathimerini” publication.

“As the newspaper Kathimerini reveals today, with two letters -informative notes, in November and December 2023, the former President of OPEKEPE, Evangelos Simandrakos, informed the then Deputy Minister to Prime Minister Yannis Bratakos about the existence of 9,309 “sinful” VAT numbers, which he even exempted from the then payments. The hypocritical ‘I didn’t know, I didn’t know’ performance, which the prime minister has been putting on in recent days, has come down with a bang,” the PASOK statement said.

“The questions to the prime minister, who is heavily exposed, remain and demand answers from him:

-Didn’t his closest colleague at the time, in Maximou, inform him of the existence of the ‘sinful’ taxpayers’ tax numbers? What issues are they discussing in Maximos, if not something of such seriousness?

-Why, for two years, was this unprecedented scandal covered up?

Today’s revelations -which, as we are informed by the newspaper Kathimerini, will be included in the controversial documentation on OPEKEPE-certify that the circle of New Democracy party leaders, auditors, and OPEKEPE executives had protection and cover at the highest level of the government,” the statement concludes.