According to the PASOK account, Ms Semertzidou confirmed she stood as a New Democracy candidate in 2019, worked in the party’s rural secretariat as coordinator for community resources and women’s entrepreneurship, and ran in the 2023 local elections. She told the committee she did not know why she had been removed from New Democracy’s ballots in 2023 and that she resigned from her coordinator role of her own accord, adding that the party never asked her to step down even after the Money Laundering Authority announced an investigation and froze assets.

PASOK sources said the witness acknowledged receiving €133,232 between 2019 and 2024, and that her wider family received a total of €470,217 in the same period. When pressed about the financial transactions that benefited her partner and his business, subsidies totalling €1,987,462, the sources said, she replied that she did not know the details and suggested questions be put to her partner. She repeatedly described his business as ‘completely legal’ and said she owned only a moped.

On the seizure of €1.5 million by the Money Laundering Authority, PASOK sources said Ms Semertzidou claimed complete ignorance and insisted that ‘everything is legal’. When asked about the high-end vehicles associated with her household, she said they belonged to her partner and that she was unsure when permission would be required to acquire or drive such cars.

PASOK sources also reported that, under questioning about winnings from games of chance, Ms Semertzidou admitted she had won on more than one occasion but could not recall dates or amounts. The party’s account noted that similar answers have been given by other New Democracy executives and associates who appear in the inquiry, including Mr Stratakis, prompting a sarcastic comment from PASOK that ‘ND executives are probably extremely lucky’.

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