“What was I supposed to do? Should I take a bullhorn and go to Australia to ask if there are any Greeks to vote for me?” she quipped, defending her actions as part of the necessity to reach voters.

Asimakopoulou, who was excluded from New Democracy’s European Parliament candidate list following the outcry, also claimed that she paid an “excessive price” for the incident, insisting that the uproar was orchestrated to target both herself and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The scandal erupted after it emerged that mass emails were sent to expatriates without their consent, prompting complaints of a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Greek Data Protection Authority later imposed a fine of €40,000 for the unlawful processing of citizens’ data, and an additional €400,000 fine was levied against the Ministry of the Interior for its role in the data breach.

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