If you go on google and type in the word "Vatopedi" thousands of articles will pop up claiming that this was one of the biggest and most controversial scandals to ever break out in Greece. Vatopedi, was indeed a scandal, not because there were any criminal acts tied to it, but because the people behind this affair used it to bring down the former government of Costas Karamanlis. All those who were shown to be culprits have been cleared of any wrongdoings today, but nonetheless their political careers have been tarnished. No kickbacks to political leaders were ever found and neither was any money laundering, but people continue to term it as a scandal. So what did remain...? What unfortunately remained was a soiled view of the previous Karamanlis Cabinet, even from some of its very own supporters.With this in mind, SKAI channel last night debuted a new series entitled "Vatopedi - The whole Story".
Last night's episode cut right to the chase, it said that the Vatopedi issue was surfaced in August 2008 when the ruling conservative party of Costas Karamanlis decided to persecute D. Kontominas (the owner of ALPHA Television), for criminal acts in other foreign countries. The justice system got involved and after a careful review passed judgement that there were no criminal acts noted in the Vatopedi issue. Nonetheless, the "dark side" of the ruling socialist empire took over, and the issue was once again brought to center stage a few weeks later with so many falsifications that it would take a massive load of lawsuits to ever clear the garbage that was being broadcasted to the public by both domestic and foreign mass media giants.
Why? Aside from Kontominas, a peculiar power game against Theodore Roussopoulos who was the acting government spokesman began being played after former premier Costas Karamanlis returned from Bucharest in 2008 where he vetoed FYROM's accession to NATO.
Roussopoulos was suddenly shown as one of the leading offenders in the Vatopedi issue and from the evidence presented by reporters (especially three particular names on ALPHA Channel) he became the "spark" that then ignited the beginning of the end of the Karamanlis government in 2009 by George Papandreou's PASOK party.
Today we know there was much political intrigue and other dark purposes that were behind the so called Vatopedi issue as we also know that it was totally exploited by the ruling socialists at the time, for obvious reasons, because George Papandreou's popularity could never challenge that of Karamanlis.
This is probably why it took so long to investigate this case because it was very smartly set up. Till this day not one criminal act, on a political level has been found, not one penny has been found to be laundered but people still talk about this affair as if it was a scandal. When you ask Greek citizens where the bribes, they will answer in some Swiss account, or that the two major political parties decided to cover it up. Which of course is not true.
The topic is still too controversial that is why we decided to first review the series ourselves and after doing so, we have decided to post it. We are very happy to say that although it does not do Karamanlis justice (because it does not go into the political intrigue in the way we had expected (at least it has not done so yet) it nonetheless explores the real reasons behind this case, which we once again note was used by PASOK to bring down the government of Karamanlis in 2009.
Today we present the first part, for your viewing pleasure and promise to continue posting the series as it progresses over the next few weeks. Video Source SKAI -Click here if you have trouble viewing video
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