When Blue Skies was Unmasked as ND’s Political ‘Slush Fund’

At first, we were told that two key executives of the infamous “Omada Alithias” (Truth Team), Kimonas Benos and Kostas Doganis, were employed by a company called Blue Skies, which belongs to the advertising firm V+O, controlled in turn by Thomas Varvitsiotis and Yiannis Olympios. The former did not have any significant presence in advertising and communication sector, but merely appeared to have acquired major deals with businesspeople active in the field of political communication.

We were also informed that this company has employed top ND cadres, as well as at least one of the individuals alleged to be behind anonymous social media accounts engaged in not only disseminating party propaganda but also of smears attacks and character assassinations, culminating in online abuse against relatives of victims of the Tempi rail disaster.

We also found out that this company was allocating almost all of its turnover to payroll and social security benefits, in other words, everything that flowed into the company coffers was then doled out through remuneration. We learned that the attorney who signed various extra-judicial demands of the Omada Alithias members previously collaborated with law firms along with current government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis. That same attorney also has several contracts from public sector institutions to provide legal services.

And now even more information has been revealed about ND cadres paid by Blue Skies. These include Labor and Social Security Minister Domna-Maria Michailidou; Alternate Minister of Transport Konstantinos Kyranakis; Thanasis Bakolas, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and current secretary general of the European People’s Party (EPP); Orsaki Roussetou, a member of ND’s political secretariat; the PM’s long-time social media coordinator, Ilias Eftaxias; the daughter and wife of New Democracy MP Makarios Lazaridis, the party’s deputy Parliamentary spokesman; Poppi Papatzani, a ND cadre; Giorgos Tzanoudakis, a former top cadre in ND’s social media division; and Christos Tzelis, an editor of the New Democracy’s video production and a partner of other ND cadres in various communication companies; Antonia Diamantopoulou, a current associate of MEP Elisa Vozenberg, as well as another of the prime minister’s close associates, Konstantinos Bardakas.

It’s also noteworthy that Konstantinos Ligas, was also present in Blue Skies’ first corporate steps, was at the time was an executive with the state-run Hellenic Vehicle Industry (ELVO).

Another fascinating fact is that while most career-oriented people nowadays, especially younger generations, always cite their stints in the private sector on their CVs, individual websites or on LinkedIn – even, as we’ve seen lately, by “inflating” their role, the aforementioned individuals completely overlooking their tenure at Varvitsiotis’ and Olympios’ Blue Skies.

Why would people from a liberal party conceal, from their job resumes, the fact that they worked and were paid by a private sector company in the communications sector, and during the periods in question when there was no conflict of interest in such employment?

All of this suggests that this isn’t a mere form of employment. Blue Skies is less reminiscent of a company with a comparable business activity and more akin to a legal “slush fund” operated by ND.

It’s a type of slush fund in the sense that money was channeled through this company to New Democracy officials, without this appearing as a legal expenditure on the party’s budget, either through employment in the party’s apparatus or in a position as an associate of a Parliament deputy. In other words, it was a way of funding a party apparatus without showing any official connection to New Democracy.

Except that such “slush fund” practices don’t merely mean “finding somewhere from where to receive a paycheck”, because in such cases – where party cadres find a job in the private sector through the party’s intervention – they usually don’t overlook it on their CVs afterwards. After all, we’re talking about ND, where previous experience in the private sector is – supposedly – a “badge of honor”.

“Slush fund” practices mean that the payroll here also involved so-called “special assignments”, such as party work, in the broadest sense of the term, and not necessarily “promotional”. Or, to put it simply, not in terms that you want to put on your CV.

For example, “Omada Alithias” type PR “campaigns”, primarily creating and maintaining anonymous or fake social media accounts for the purpose of “black” or negative propaganda and character assassination. Or, related to the connection and coordination with the various communications experts retained by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, such as Stan Greenberg or Eric Parks-Thanopoulos, who in press reports has been called the “general of ND’s trolls”.

“Slush fund” practices, of course, mean that a party receives funding from businesspeople to use it for the salaries of party cadres, but does not declare it as such. In other words, the party does not declare, as it is obliged under legislation regarding political funding, that it has received money from private individuals. However, “shady” financing of a party is illegal, with the law, among others, prohibiting the financing of parties by legal entities operating under private law (i.e. companies), as private donations to parties is only allowed by individuals.

All this raises very serious issues, first and foremost of a moral nature.

When MPs and ministers, who under normal circumstances should operate in absolute transparency, conceal their previous employment with a company under scrutiny over unfair communication practices and more, it’s clear there’s a serious problem regarding the necessary transparency that should govern the actions of public figures in positions of responsibility.

When a political party has never declared or reported on how it used a private company to employ party cadres, or even who financed this company, then serious questions arise as to how this party, which has been in government since 2019, manages its finances.

When a company, V+O in this instance, owned by Varvitsiotis and Olympios, which maintains a central role in the communication field, and at the same time controls a parallel company, Blue Skies, which has been assigned this project, then a problem arises on how money is channeled left and right.

Foremostly, however, what emerges is another piece in the puzzle of a continuous deviation from institutional legality, ranging from wiretappings coordinated by the PM’s office, to digital “cutting boards” regarding the Tempi disaster, to finally, the social media trolls – the thread is common.

This means that all of these things must be investigated, and responsibilities assigned and what are essentially a “deep state” mechanisms and their supporters must be exposed. It is not enough to break the abscess; it must also be cleansed.