Zürcher Nachrichten - Greece names new ministers after EU farm scandal resignations

The government resignations came after European Union prosecutors this week said they were probing 20 members of the ruling New Democracy party, including active and former lawmakers.

Prosecutors are reportedly probing whether beneficiaries of agriculture subsidies had made false claims.

According to Greek authorities, the network defrauded at least 23 million euros ($27 million) since it started around 2018.

- 'Widespread corruption' -

"The removal of the current leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development highlights the widespread corruption whose core and heart lie deep within the government" and the prime minister's office, the main opposition socialist Pasok party said in a statement.

"Of course, until yesterday the prime minister was claiming that this leadership had brought order to the chaos of illegal subsidies," it said.

The EU's European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) on Wednesday demanded that Greece lift the parliamentary immunity of 11 lawmakers, for acts allegedly committed in 2021.

The agency said it also had information regarding the possible involvement of a former agriculture minister, his deputy and five former MPs.

On Thursday, it said there were another two MPs under suspicion.

It said the investigation concerns "instigation of breach of trust, computer fraud and false attestation with the intent to obtain for another an unlawful benefit."

The suspects have not been formally named, but their names were widely circulated by Greek media.

According to news reports, the EPPO investigation was partly based on phone recordings in which politicians are allegedly heard attempting to secure subsidy payments for their constituents.

"You had wolves guarding the sheep," Konstantinos Barkas, parliament speaker for the leftist Syriza party, told lawmakers.

Ministers cannot be independently prosecuted by Greek courts. Any probe must first pass through parliament in a cumbersome process that is frequently blocked by the government's majority lawmakers.

Greek police last year made dozens of non-political arrests over the scandal.

EU prosecutors first detailed the scam last May, accusing subsidy beneficiaries of making claims for land that they did not own and exaggerating the number of animals on farms.

Some people receiving payments had no link to agriculture.

The scheme started after the EU's Common Agricultural Policy began calculating subsidies based on land instead of livestock in 2014.

The incomplete land registry at the time made ownership across much of Greece unclear. Farmers were therefore allowed to declare land owned elsewhere in the country to claim subsidies.

- 'Thieves' -

Cases under investigation include pastures declared on archaeological sites, olive trees in a military airport and banana plantations on Mount Olympus.

The allegations led to a string of raids and arrests last October, as well as long-running protests from farmers who had their legitimate subsidies held up.

Most of the fraudulent subsidies went to the island of Crete, where the family of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been politically influential for over a century.

"To conceal the illicit origin of the proceeds, the suspects are believed to have issued fictitious invoices, routed the funds through multiple bank accounts, and mixed them with legitimate income," the EPPO said in October.

According to Greek authorities, approximately 80 percent of subsidies for pastures granted from 2017 to 2020 ended up in Crete.

And while the number of livestock farmers in Greece is decreasing, 13,000 new farmers were registered in Crete between 2019 and 2025. The number of declared sheep and goats doubled over the same period.

Mitsotakis, who notes the fraud began before he came to power in 2019, has vowed to imprison the "thieves" responsible and to reclaim the funds.

Elections are scheduled in Greece next year. Mitsotakis's conservative party leads in opinion polls, but is not expected to secure an absolute majority.

D.Smith--NZN