Amid tensions between the government and the opposition, Greece’s Parliament has been debating and voting the fraud scandal, where EU Agricultural Funds were distributed illegally by the national distribution agency OPEKEPE.
With a voting on Tuesday, the Parliament approved with the votes of the government its proposal to establish an investigative committee into the fraud scheme of illegal EU Agricultural Funds through the OPEKEPE
The committee will investigate the disgraced OPEKEPE agency, responsible for disbursing EU agricultural funds, in a probe spanning the past 25 years, from the year it was established – although the agency started to be distributor of the EU subsidies to farmers and breeders six years after its foundation.
The government proposal was opposed by the bulk of the opposition, which is demanding a preliminary inquiry into the findings submitted to Parliament by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, implicating two former agriculture ministers from the New Democracy party – Makis Voridis and Lefteris Avgenakis – in the case.
The session on Tuesday session was marked by heightened tensions between the government and opposition parties.
In his speech, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accused the opposition of launching a “witch hunt” against the government.
“Greece in 2025 doesn’t need scandal-mongering; it needs truth… But assigning responsibility is one thing and going on a witch hunt is another,” he said.
The Parliament convenes also on Wednesday to debate two proposals, one submitted by PASOK and another by SYRIZA, together with New Left, calling for the formation of a preliminary committee to investigate the two ministers who were forced to resign when the scandal broke out.
In the session on Wednesday, both Voridis and Avgenakis denied any wrongdoing or involvement in the misuse of the EU agricultural subsidies.
It should be recalled that several acting ministers of ruling New Democracy have been supporting the two former ministers claiming the European Prosecutor investigating the OPEKEPE EU funds scandal has no specific evidence against them.
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Politicians should no longer be allowed to use the phrase ‘witch hunt’ unless they agree to blow themselves twice for every tie they say it. Have they no self-respect? Obviously not.