Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged, on Wednesday, that the large sums embezzled in the OPEKEPE farming scandal would be returned to the public coffers during a campaign tour in the town of Karpenisi in central Greece.
The farming scandal came to light recently, revealing that a Greek state agency (OPEKEPE), responsible for disbursing funds to farmers, was implicated in fraudulent land leases and fake declarations that funneled millions of euros to non-existent farmland. The EU has fined Greece approximately €400 million over the matter, while several key figures in Mitsotakis’s cabinet were forced to resign, including the former Migration Minister Makis Voridis.
The bulk of the fake declarations appear to have been filed by livestock farmers from the island of Crete between 2019 and 2022.
Commenting on the political developments linked with the farming scandal, after pointing out that his government had called for an in-depth probe as far back as 30 years ago with the establishment of a special parliamentary committee, Mitsotakis stated, “We were the first to call for a parliamentary inquiry into OPEKEPE, not just to assign blame, but to figure out how we can improve, how to make better use of EU subsidies for the benefit of real farmers — and how to take the money back from the thieves.”
According to government officials, the decision to request a parliamentary inquiry is a logical move, addressing a “wound” that has cost Greece more than €2.7 billion over the past 30 years. They stress that this is “the exact opposite of a cover-up,” as no period of governance — including the current one — is exempt from scrutiny.
Meanwhile, during his visit to Karpenisi, the Prime Minister toured the 2nd Primary School, one of 430 schools being renovated this summer under the “Marietta Giannakou” program.
He was briefed by Education, Religious Affairs, and Sports Minister Sofia Zacharaki and school principal Yiannis Efthymiou on the ongoing works. Also present were Central Greece’s Regional Education Director Eleni Beniata and Evrytania’s Primary Education Director Vasilis Stavropoulos.
