Three ministers and two high-ranking officials resigned at noon on Friday as their names included in the European Public Prosecutor investigating the OPEKEPE scandal, the fraud of illegal distribution of EU agricultural funds worth millions of euros.
Agricultural Development & Food Minister Costas Tsiaras, Climate Crisis & Civil Protection Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis and Deputy Health Minister Dimitris Vartzopoulos submitted theri resignation short before noon, after the two files on the OPEKEPE scandal were sent to the Parliament with the request to lift their immunity.
At 12:30 the government spokesman announced the names of the new ministers to replace the resigned ones: The resigned ministers are being replaced by Margatiris Schinas and Makarios Lazaridis as Agriculture minister and deputy respectively, Evangelos Tournas is the new Civil Protection minister, while Vartzopoulos will not be replaced but his duties of “Psychical health” will be distributed among the deputy ministers of the Health Ministry.
In a last minute development, state broadcaster ERT reported that ND Secretary Costas Skrekas and ND Parliament group representative Notis Mitarakis – both former ministers – submitted their resignations as well.
So far, no MP has resigned because in a domino effect of lawmakers’ resignations could deprieve ruling New Democracy of the absolute majority in the Greek Parliament, should they refuse to return their seat to the party.
The first two files of the OPEKEPE scandal were submitted to Parliament around 10 o’ clock on April 3.
The files submitted to the Parliament reportedly include the names of a total of 20 high-ranking officials of ruling New Democracy, among them active MPs and former ministers such as a previous Agriculture Minister and his deputy, the name of ND Secretary Costas Skrekas – ex Development minister -, former Migration minister Notis Mitarakis and former Transport Minister Costas Ach. Karamanlis. He had resigned after the Tempi train crash tragedy in February 2023 but he was re-elected as MP in the parliamentary elections a few months later. His name is not included in the Tempi files, though.
For ministers, the procedure is defined by article 86 of the Constitution regarding the ministers’ liability. The case file will be announced in the Plenary and then MPs will be given access to it.
However, in relation to the request concerning MPs’ immunity, the procedure, according to Article 62 of the Constitution, is different. The request for the lifting of MPs’ immunity will be forwarded to the Chairman of the Ethics Committee, and the members of the Committee will then be informed of the case file, which will meet in this regard. The request will then be placed on the agenda, in order for the House to decide on the lifting of immunity (within 90 days).
If a risk of statute of limitations is established for any of the eleven MPs, it is not excluded that the procedures will be expedited, with meetings of both the Committee and the Plenary of the Parliament even before Easter. As mentioned, two meetings are expected to be held in order to make the relevant announcements, while a meeting specifically for former government officials is being considered during the day and on Good Monday.
The sweeping political developments after the OPEKEPE scandal case files that reached Parliament have forced the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to accelerate the reshuffle in an effort to manage the situation that seems to be getting out of control.
According to latest information by ERT, the European Public Prosecutor’s office is preparing also a there is also a third case file.
PS With the names of active and former ministers and of a bunch of lawmakers in the files of the EU Public Prosecutor, with a scandal touching the government, the Parliament and the ND party, a Prime Minister with dignity and respect for the citizens should normally seek early elections. But what do I know about corrupt and rotten politics?
