Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis referred to the serious case of fraudulently allocated farm sector subsidies by a now defunct state organization and to the resulting political fallout, which has so far led to the resignation of a minister and four deputy ministers from his Cabinet last week.

Mitsotakis characteristically said that “we failed”, in referring what’s being billed as a scam involving hundreds of millions of euros in agricultural subsidies paid out by the European Union and state coffers, in a post he makes every Sunday on his FB account.

An investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) in Athens first uncovered and published findings pointing to corruption and outright fraud by the now disbanded Greek Payment Authority of Common Agricultural Policy (C.A.P.), known as OKEKEPE.

“You won’t hear from me any attempt to qualify this, along the lines of ‘others did this too (in the past), that justifies inaction for the present and for the future…I know that you trusted us to right the wrongs, not to perpetuate them. However difficult the battle with the deep state may be. As it turns out, the long-standing weaknesses of OPEKEPE have allowed for bureaucratic clientelism,” he said, adding:

Unfortunately, this was also the case with our own party. Significant efforts have been made at reform, but let’s be honest: We failed. The conversations that are coming to light are causing indignation and anger.”

His latter reference was to phone conversations of OPEKEPE officials that were legally recorded via phone taps by Greek law enforcement, and which revealed contacts and attempts to influence the organization by elected office-holders, including ruling New Democracy (ND) deputies.

“Anyone who is proven to have received European funds for which they are not entitled to will be summoned to pay them back. The many of our farmers and livestock herders who toil and produce high quality products, as well as all law-abiding citizens, will not tolerate swindlers who declare non-existent pastureland and herds, nor those who have facilitated them to do so.”