In a significant political shake-up, several high-ranking officials within Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' center-right government resigned on Friday after being implicated in a vast scheme to defraud the European Union's agricultural budget. The resignations follow the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) referring information to the Greek parliament concerning the alleged involvement of two former ministers.
Among those who stepped down were Migration Minister Makis Voridis, Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou, Deputy Minister of Rural Development Dionysis Stamenitis, Deputy Minister of Digital Governance Christos Boukoros, and Secretary General for Rural Development and Food Giorgos Stratakos. The EPPO has accused former ministers Voridis, who served as Agriculture Minister from 2021 to 2023, and Lefteris Avgenakis, who served as Agriculture Minister from 2023 to 2024, of misappropriating EU funds. Both men vehemently deny the allegations.
The scandal centers on OPEKEPE, the organization responsible for EU farm payments in Greece. The EPPO is actively investigating dozens of cases in which individuals in Greece allegedly received EU agricultural funds for pastureland they did not own or lease or for agrarian work they did not perform, thereby diverting crucial funds from legitimate farmers. This multi-year, multi-million-euro scam has been the subject of prior investigations.
A 3,000-page EPPO file, now accessible to Greek MPs, describes a "criminal organization" composed of state officials from OPEKEPE, along with individuals and Members of Parliament (MPs), who exploited EU funds through illegally obtained agricultural subsidies. The file reportedly details the organization's operations, primarily based in Crete. Further revelations include "brazen conversations" from wiretaps on OPEKEPE officials' phones, showing high-ranking figures discussing how to remove European prosecutors from the investigation and MPs requesting favors for their constituents.
Adding to the gravity of the accusations, the file contains testimonies from two former OPEKEPE presidents, Grigoris Varras and Evangelos Simandrakos. They claim they were fired by Avgenakis and Voridis for attempting to block fraudulent payments, alleging that the ministers pressured them to proceed with the disbursements. The EPPO noted that "requesting the resignation of [former OPEKEPE president Grigoris] Varras seems to have halted the consolidation of the relevant procedures and allowed these groups to continue these activities unhindered."
The European Commission has already penalized Greece with a substantial fine of around €400 million for mismanaging EU farm funding and inadequate controls, with more fines anticipated. In response, the Greek government has stated its intention to shut down OPEKEPE by next year, transferring farm payments to the Independent Authority for Public Revenues.
A particularly egregious aspect of the fraud involves non-existent grazing land, as well as a similar scam involving organic farms, specifically organic bee and livestock farms. The island of Crete, notably the regions of Hania and Iraklio, is central to this scam. Applications for the organic farming program amounted to a staggering €705 million, far exceeding the nationwide budget of €298 million. Market sources estimate that genuine organic farmers, livestock farmers, and beekeepers represent only about 5% of the total applications. For organic bee farming alone, applications totaled €170 million against an allocated budget of €18.9 million, with approximately 60% of these applications originating from Crete. The fraud involved certifications being issued without verification of beehives by inspectors, with some "producers" falsely claiming 300-500 units to qualify for maximum subsidies. Concerns were raised as early as February 2025 regarding late applications for subsidies, with an estimated 7,000 reportedly accepted despite warnings.
Political Parties Condemn Government Amidst Growing Scandal
The resignations and ongoing investigations have triggered strong condemnations from opposition parties.
PASOK, a leading opposition party, has called for the resignation of the government and the Prime Minister, asserting that "this government does not stand. It is a government that produces corruption". PASOK leaders recalled that they had demanded political change months ago. They insisted that the OPEKEPE scandal must be thoroughly investigated, warning against any attempts to shelve the case or allow it to be subject to a statute of limitations. They specifically referenced a warning from the European Prosecutor that such a risk exists if the actions carried out during the New Democracy party's first term are not investigated by October. PASOK officials also dismissed the government's previous defense strategies, stating that the "heavy incriminating evidence" in the case file had dismantled their claims of weak evidence or that "MPs from all parties make favors." They highlighted that ruling party MPs and current deputy ministers were found to have requested "irregular actions and exceptions from legitimate controls," rather than mere favors.
The New Left party has branded the situation at OPEKEPE an "organized corruption circuit" and a "pyramid of corruption." Alexis Charitsis, the party's president, stated that this is not merely about "signatures" or omissions by ministers but a systemic network originating from the political leadership and extending through various levels down to daily transactions with beneficiaries of illegal subsidies. Charitsis highlighted that the European Prosecutor's focus on the 2019-2022 period directly refutes the government's attempts to attribute the issues to "long-standing pathologies." He also pointed to a history of unaddressed parliamentary interventions and institutional complaints concerning OPEKEPE.
The New Left detailed the core of the scam, explaining how a large number of livestock breeders between 2019 and 2022 falsely declared public lands as private using fake property declarations (E9s) or leases to obtain subsidy rights. They would then falsely declare non-existent sheep and goats to secure public grazing land, which was essential for activating and maintaining their payment entitlements. The party asserted that "it is now evident that all this was not only done with the government's knowledge but also that political figures had active involvement in the creation of the pyramid of corruption." Huseyin Zeybek, a New Left MP, tabled a question in parliament on September 24, 2024, presenting detailed data demonstrating a 48.45% increase in declared sheep and goats between 2019 and 2023, specifically highlighting significant increases in Crete, where declared milk quantities per animal were disproportionately low compared to the rest of the country. The New Left also raised concerns about "16,000 AFMs" (tax identification numbers) linked to Mr. Avgenakis, which the European Prosecutor is investigating, alleging that Avgenakis intervened to "unblock" and pay nearly 6,000 AFMs pre-election that had been frozen for irregularities since 2020.
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) dismissed the government's resignations as a mere attempt to "wash its hands" of the scandal, arguing that the OPEKEPE scandal extends far beyond the responsibilities of individual ministers or those caught on tape. The KKE characterized the "favor industry" as a product of the New Democracy government, operating within a "fully corrupt payment system" that emerged from the "anti-popular Common Agricultural Policy of the EU." The party claimed that this system was jointly shaped by all successive governments and Brussels to "sugar-coat the pill of plundering the struggling farmer by monopolies" and that the current revelations are merely the "tip of the iceberg." The KKE issued a stern warning to the government not to engage in its "known practice" of cover-ups and to refrain from burdening "struggling farmers and the Greek people with the 'broken pieces' from the 'feast' of
The ongoing investigations by the EPPO, which conducted searches in Athens and Crete in May 2025, continue to uncover layers of what appears to be a deeply entrenched system of fraud and corruption within Greece's agricultural subsidy distribution. The Greek government faces mounting pressure to address the systemic issues revealed by the scandal.
Photo: Kathimerini