Greece’s Migration Minister Makis Voridis and three deputy ministers from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Rural Development & Food and the Digital governance as well as the Secretary General of Rural Development & Food submitted their resignation early Friday afternoon following the voluminous case file by the European Prosecutor regarding the scandal of EU subsidies funds via OPEKEPE to not eligible farmers and breeders.
The top government officials saw the exit door from the conservative New Democracy government as their names are mentioned as possible suspects in the 3,000-page case file that was sent to the Greek Parliament on Thursday.
Migration & Asylum Minister Makis Voridis had served also a rural Development & Food Minister from July 2019 to January 2021.
Excerpts from the transmission of the OPEKEPE case file, which are brought to light by daily kathimerini.gr, contain indications of the involvement of politicians and the relevant ministers in the notorious case.
According to the case file of the European Prosecutors, the former president of OPEKEPE, Grigoris Varras, had twice informed Minister Makis Voridis by letters regarding the irregularities in the financial aid system.
Two key figures, Dimitris Melas and Athanasia Reppa (currently on trial for individual OPEKEPE cases), attempted to stop the audits by the Varras group. The European Prosecutors point out that the outcome of this internal dispute was the “resignation” of Varras by the then Minister Makis Voridis.
The following statement by the prosecutors is also indicative, kathimerini noted: “The request for Varras’ resignation seems to have stopped the consolidation of the relevant procedures and given the opportunity for these groups (ed.: referred to as criminal) to continue their activities.”
Furthermore, it demonstrates Greece’s systematic effort, through the persons involved, to artificially change the spatial distribution and the declared areas, in order to avoid the controls of the European control mechanisms.
The investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office concerns, among others, charges according to which, in the period 2019 – 2022, a significant number of individuals were falsely presented as young farmers who were owners or tenants of large agricultural/livestock lands in order to receive payments/subsidies from the national reserve.
These pastures were often located far from the applicants’ actual residence and most were previously public lands, given only for grazing to landless people.
In the following years up to 2024, they allegedly submitted incorrect livestock declarations and requested the allocation of the corresponding public pasture in order to activate and maintain payment entitlements.
Internal audit
The replacements of the resigned minister and the deputy ministers will be announced in the coming days, the government spokesman announced adding that the Prime Minister accepted the resignations.
The scandal of the EU funds fraud is too big to be tolerated by PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis even if those involved insist that they are innocent.
