DECLARATION OF ESTABLISHMENT
The mandatory imposition of a personal number and a digital identity on Greek citizens confronts us with a historic responsibility. Recognizing the great danger, we have decided to proceed with a unifying initiative of well-intentioned people, whose common ground is vigilance, alertness, reflection, and ultimately our refusal to accept the imposition of digital means of citizen control.
We do not deny the usefulness of digital technology. However, we foresee the dangers lurking in its instrumentalization, particularly in relation to restricting human freedom. For this reason, we sound the alarm to every thinking citizen. Entering the digital age may indeed offer greater convenience and speed in services, but it inevitably leads to data profiling and the creation of controlled and therefore dependent citizens—completely powerless in the face of those who will possess their personal data and digital files.
With the personal number as the key, the unification of all records and their interconnection, apart from being presented as a tool for citizen service, becomes a powerful weapon in the hands of governments, banks, funds, and anyone else who may gain access to the data of millions of citizens.
Moreover, in this process of obtaining a personal number—introduced in Greece particularly early—members of the armed forces and security services, who until now used their official ID for identification, are also required to enter this system by August 2026. This fact shows that those responsible for enforcing this obligation aim to autocratically forbid any exceptions to this mass digital registration.
In a globally turbulent era, in which even wars are now conducted electronically, with surveillance and constant leaks of personal data from supposedly “secure” platforms, the centralized digital consolidation of all Greek citizens’ data constitutes a national risk, in addition to an essential dissolution of democracy and individual rights.
Alongside the various technical, legal, and administrative aspects of this issue, there are deeper dimensions. Therefore, it is crucial to take into account the spiritual, theological, and anthropological implications brought about by the universal and mandatory implementation of the P.A. and electronic monitoring. Digital identification and the numerical codification of the human person raise, among other things, serious theological concerns, troubling many citizens both within and beyond Greece. They remind us of the system foretold in the Book of Revelation by the Evangelist John, and of what Saint Paisios so pointedly warned about in his “Signs of the Times.”
The stakes are too high for us to tolerate this “innovation” without protest. It is not merely a technical or administrative matter, but an alteration of our very worldview and anthropology as shaped within our Romaiic (Greek Orthodox) tradition. It is a conscious opposition to the natural order and the inherent design according to which human beings are created by their Creator.
The digital centralized control system, under the guise of convenience and ease, imposes human desensitization and totalitarianism. It opposes human free will and violates the sanctity and uniqueness of the person. It introduces us to a regime that is unfree, inhuman, authoritarian, and undemocratic. It binds us and leads us—politically and spiritually—into captivity within the chains of an electronic dictatorship. It alienates our national, cultural, and civilizational foundation by introducing principles and ideas foreign to our centuries-old tradition, corroding our Hellenic-Orthodox identity and altering our ecclesiastical conscience.
In the face of this threat, clergy, monastics, and laypeople, united as one body, have convened and founded the “Panhellenic Movement Against Digital Totalitarianism.” Our movement, under the name “EXODOS,” aims to resist this imposed, systematic digitalization of our lives. It is, and will remain, independent of political parties and other interests. We certainly respect and applaud the efforts of parties and political figures who oppose the digital identity and personal number “prison.” However, we believe that only a nationwide, supra-political, unifying, and unmanipulated movement can effectively undertake the task of organizing and socially expressing those who oppose the rapidly advancing digital totalitarianism. We wish for this movement to include all Greek citizens who reflect upon and remain vigilant for their freedom, identity, traditions, and beliefs, regardless of their political affiliation. At this point, we have no room for division or political conflict. We have no room for separation between the religious and the non-religious.
We therefore call on all citizens, without party labels or affiliations, to resist the imposition of digital profiling. We urge them to inform themselves about the dangers of the digital identity and personal number through the website of the “Movement Against Digital Totalitarianism,” under the name “EXODOS,” at eksodos.gr. We invite them to join us in this effort and contribute however they can to this historic challenge that places us before our responsibilities.
At the same time, as citizens, we demand that the government withdraw the personal number and digital identity, showing—even at the last moment—a trace of democratic spirit and concern for citizens’ freedoms and rights. Otherwise, it must provide alternative forms of identification and service for conscientious objectors who will not receive the digital ID and personal number, just as similar exceptions exist for other conscientious objectors.
In conclusion, our three main objectives are:
- To inform and raise public awareness about the dangers of control and loss of freedoms arising from the mandatory digital transformation of public and private life, and specifically from the digital identity and personal number.
- To organize mass resistance against their mandatory imposition, asserting our justified refusal through the collection of signatures and other responsible actions.
- To represent all who join our Movement before state authorities in submitting the request to suspend the mandatory issuance and use of the personal number as the sole means of identification in the public sector, and to maintain the possibility of identification using the sector-specific codes we have used until now.
Governing Committee:
Archimandrite Athanasios Anastasiou, former Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Great Meteoro
Protopresbyter Ioannis Fotopoulos, parish priest of the Church of Saint Paraskevi, Attica
Monk Arsenios Vliagkoftis, Holy Monastery of Saint Arsenios
Georgios Apostolakis, retired Vice President of the Supreme Court
Dimitrios Chiotakakos, PhD in Informatics & Telecommunications
Charalampos Andralis, lawyer at the Supreme Court
Fotios Pallas, philologist and educator
