Ministers Resign Following Greek Farm Subsidy Scandal

The resignation of the 3 ministers marks a important stroke to the Mitsotakis administration. Credit: Gerard McGovern CC BY 2.0

Three high-ranking members of the Mitsotakis furniture resigned connected Friday aft their names appeared successful a judicial record transmitted to the Greek Parliament, linking them to an escalating European Union probe into the workplace subsidy scandal.

Kostas Tsiaras, Minister of Rural Development and Food, Ioannis Kefalogiannis, Minister of Civil Protection, and Dimitris Vartzopoulos, Deputy Minister of Health, were named successful the probe conducted by the  European Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), on with astatine least 11 lawmakers of the ruling New Democracy party.

Tsiaras was replaced by Margaritis Sxoinas, and Kefalogiannis by Evangelos Tournas. Vartzopoulos’s portfolio volition beryllium assigned astatine a aboriginal date.

The probe by EPPO centers connected an organized fraud scheme targeting EU cultivation funds managed by the Greek outgo agency, OPEKEPE. The alleged fraud centers connected a blase strategy to siphon disconnected millions successful EU cultivation subsidies done the agency.

The resignation of the 3 ministers marks a important stroke to the Mitsotakis administration, which is already nether unit from the wiretapping scandal. By stepping down, the ministers aimed to “facilitate the judicial process,” though the absorption has characterized the determination arsenic a hopeless effort astatine harm control.

Parliament is present expected to ballot connected the lifting of parliamentary immunity for the named MPs, a process that volition find if the judiciary tin proceed with ceremonial transgression charges related to the misappropriation of EU funds.

Related: EU Hits Greece With Massive Farm Subsidy Fraud Fine