Greece's government on Friday faced a no-confidence vote called by the opposition over a long-running wiretap scandal in which top officials were targeted by state intelligence for months.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose ruling conservatives can count on enough lawmakers to overcome the challenge in parliament, has welcomed the vote as an opportunity to promote his government's record ahead of elections in spring.
"I seek comparison, not conflict," Mitsotakis said after the opposition called for the vote on Wednesday.
"The motion is welcome...(it is) a very good opportunity to reconfirm the cohesion of our parliamentary group," the PM said.
The government can nominally count on at least 156 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, enough to survive the motion.
Leftist former PM Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday called for the no-confidence vote and called on Mitsotakis to resign.
"The prime minister cannot stay at his post one more day," he said.
Mitsotakis was the "mastermind and leader" behind a "criminal network" that had wiretapped officials' phones, Tsipras alleged.
The former PM said he had secured proof from Greece's communications watchdog ADAE after it conducted an audit at the country's telecoms operators last month.
The ex-PM said ADAE's chairman Christos Rammos had informed him on Tuesday that Greece's former energy minister, its head of staff, army chief, former national security advisor and two officials involved with arms procurement had been under surveillance by state intelligence agency EYP.
Tsipras said Mitsotakis, whose personal office has oversight over EYP, had "consciously lied" for six months and had "thrown the entire weight of his authority" to prevent the truth from coming out.
The government has accused Tsipras of seeking to weaponise the ADAE.
It has noted that it was Tsipras' leftist government that appointed Rammos to his post just before elections in 2019.
The former energy minister Kostis Hatzidakis, now minister for labour, defended the PM this week.
"I am convinced the prime minister has nothing to do with this case," he told Antenna TV.
The scandal emerged in July when Nikos Androulakis, MEP and leader of the Greek socialist party (Pasok-Kinal), took legal action against an attempt to infiltrate his mobile phone using illegal spyware known as Predator.
After the revelation, Mitsotakis admitted that state intelligence had been monitoring Androulakis, without disclosing the reason, but flatly denied authorities used Predator.
The government has also strongly denied news reports that dozens of prominent Greeks were under surveillance via Predator, including former premier Antonis Samaras, several serving cabinet ministers, military chiefs, media owners and journalists.
Mitsotakis has called the reports "conspiracy theories" and "fairy tales... without a shred of evidence".
In August, the Greek intelligence service chief, as well as a close aide and nephew to the prime minister, both resigned over the socialist leader's surveillance.
