Greek Government Defends MPs in Farm Subsidy Probe, Pushes EU-Wide Social Media Ban for Minors

The Greek authorities defended ruling enactment lawmakers caught up successful a European Public Prosecutor's Office probe into cultivation subsidies, arguing their determination to waive parliamentary immunity reflects a committedness to transparency alternatively than immoderate acknowledgment of wrongdoing.

Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis, speaking to SKAI radio, rejected absorption claims that New Democracy harbors corrupt officials, noting that the implicated lawmakers voluntarily requested the lifting of their immunity. He turned the accusations backmost connected the opposition, pointing retired that 7 PASOK lawmakers had faced akin immunity proceedings since 2023.

Mr. Marinakis highlighted a structural betterment that transferred oversight of the nationalist cultivation payments bureau OPEKEPE to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue arsenic the government's substantive effect to the scandal, arguing the determination permanently closes the doorway to governmental interference successful subsidy disbursements. He criticized PASOK for voting against the measure.

The spokesperson besides rebuked PASOK person Nikos Androulakis for what helium described arsenic endorsing societal media attacks against a salient Greek author, calling the behaviour unacceptable and demanding Mr. Androulakis retreat his enactment publicly.

On children's online safety, Mr. Marinakis confirmed that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has formally written to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urging an EU-wide prohibition connected societal media entree for children nether 15. 

He acknowledged the standard of the method and regulatory challenge, saying meaningful results necessitate coordinated European enactment alternatively than nationalist measures unsocial — an statement Mr. Mitsotakis has been making astatine EU summits since archetypal raising the contented astatine the United Nations successful precocious 2024.

The spokesperson besides rejected projected electoral reforms that would abolish the penchant ballot system, arguing that a displacement toward single-member constituencies would undermine nonstop ideology and ore powerfulness among governmental elites.