FLASH NEWS
Subsidy scandal causes government crisis in Greece!
2025-07-02 09:55:42 / BOTA
For over a week, Greek public opinion has been shaken by an affair involving agricultural subsidies illegally obtained from the EU.
Accusations from Brussels have brought the first resignations. Prime Minister Mitsotakis is on the defensive.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appeared surprisingly contrite last weekend: "We have failed," he wrote on Facebook and promised to fight corruption even harder, even against officials from his New Democracy (ND) party.
Mitsotakis was referring to the recent scandal of misuse of EU funds in Greece, which is currently being investigated by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO). It concerns agricultural subsidies worth hundreds of millions of euros. They were paid by the relevant Greek agency, Opekepe, for sheep and goats that do not exist in Crete or for banana plantations on Mount Olympus.
This is suspected to have happened with the knowledge of two former agriculture ministers in the Mitsotakis government: Makis Voridis, responsible for agriculture from 2021 to 2023, and his successor Lefteris Avgenakis, who served until 2024. Voridis, who is also known as a skilled lawyer, had just become Minister of Migration in March of this year. Last Friday (June 27, 2025) he resigned to “defend his innocence.” Three state ministers involved in the affair also resigned.
A long-known scandal
In fact, the Opekepe scandal had been known for several months.
But the Greek government did not react to the allegations and did not take any action – until last week, when the EPPO transmitted information about the ministers' alleged involvement in criminal activities to the Greek parliament.
For a week now, Greek MPs have had the opportunity to see the European Public Prosecutor's Office file, which, however, is not allowed to be published.
The 3,000-page dossier describes a "criminal organisation" made up of OPEC officials, as well as MPs and individuals, who illegally received EU funds. The dossier also describes how the organisation operated mainly in Crete.
Despite the publication ban, in recent days, Greek newspapers have been publishing explosive dialogues between ruling party officials that could have come straight out of a mafia movie. As long as the publication ban is in place, the authenticity of the dialogues cannot be proven. But Mitsotakis does not seem to doubt their authenticity. “The dialogues that are coming to light are causing indignation and anger,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that anyone who has received European funds in an unauthorized manner will be asked to return them. He also announced the closure of the Opekepe agency at the end of the year.
Mitsotakis under pressure
The Greek prime minister is trying to portray himself as a reformer and a fighter against the corruption and incompetence of the Greek political system. But it remains to be seen whether citizens will believe him.
Many scandals cast a shadow over his mandate, such as the wiretapping affair, the fatal shipwreck near Pylos, and above all the railway accident near Tempi.
He has always promised a full investigation and consequences for those responsible. But so far Greece has waited in vain.
For this reason, in every poll since the beginning of the year, over 70 percent of the population accuses the government of covering up the events.
New Migration Minister Supports Even Tougher Course
Prime Minister Mitsotakis is once again facing a crisis and is trying to overcome it as soon as possible. Also through a political message, which he is sending to the increasingly conservative public and the right wing of his party, which is not always satisfied with his policies. Since the weekend, he replaced the resigned Minister of Migration, Makis Voridis, with Thanos Plevris.
Plevris, who like Voridis comes from the far-right Laos party, is the only MP from the conservative New Democracy party, who has an even tougher stance on migration policy than his predecessor.
As early as 2011, Plevris had a very clear idea for solving the migration problem: through measures that would make the country look like “hell” in the eyes of immigrants. At a conference for the far-right magazine Patria, he said at the time that there would be no border security without victims. “Border security requires deaths,” he said, word for word.
And for those who manage to cross the Greek border, he had another proposal: they should not receive social benefits, neither for food, nor for drink, nor access to healthcare. "They should have it even worse than in their own countries," he said to applause from the audience. Almost 15 years have passed since then, but Plevris has never distanced himself from his xenophobic past./ DW
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