Athens chamber president Bratakos picked as new gen-sec’t for PM’s office

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has appointed Athens Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI) president Yannis Bratakos as the new general secretary of the premier’s office, essentially the chief of staff position.

The announcement came hours after Grigoris Demetriadis resigned from the post in the face of stepped up media scrutiny and opposition criticism that Greek intelligence services allegedly tapped at least one journalist’s mobile phone using state-of-the-art spyware applications.

KINAL-PASOK party leader and Euro-MP Nikos Androulakis’ mobile phone was also targeted by spyware, which was detected by European Parliament services last year, when he was vying for the presidency of the Greek socialist party. A link containing malware, sent to him while he was in Brussels, was detected on his phone, although he never opened the link.

Bratakos was elected to the helm of Greece’s biggest and most prestigious regional chamber of commerce last year.

Before assuming the chamber’s presidency, he was the general director of ruling New Democracy (ND) party and a personal choice of Mitsotakis.

He resigned as ACCI president to assume the top government position.