Authorities are reportedly ready to freeze some 70 bank accounts and safe deposit boxes of 10 suspects, who, in total, received roughly three million euros in fraudulently approved subsidies

The European Commission has already ordered Greece to forfeit nearly €400 million in funding for 2026 — over 20 percent of the direct payments it was due to receive. In response, the government pledged to shut down OPEKEPE by the end of 2026

The development was followed by the resignation of a ND whose name has been prominently linked over the recent period to the OPEKEPE subsidies scandal

He also dismissed Ankara's annoyance with the declaration of a marine park in the Greek territorial waters in the southern Aegean, saying Athens doesn't discuss issues of sovereignty

The political atmosphere has grown increasingly tense following the release of recorded conversations implicating officials in clientelist practices.

He referred to a probe by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office pointing to misuse and outright fraud by the now disbanded Greek Payment Authority of Common Agricultural Policy

Plevris’s return to the cabinet signals a shift toward a more right-leaning political stance by Athens, at a time when the government is facing mounting political pressure and internal instability.

Their exits come on the heels of a dramatic political fallout a day earlier, when Migration and Asylum Minister Makis Voridis, along with four deputy ministers, resigned.

Migration and Asylum Minister Makis Voridis’ resignation was accepted by PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as were the ones tendered by Deputy FM Tasos Papavasiliou, Deputy Ag Minister Dionysis Stamenitis and Deputy Digital Governance Minister Christos Boukoros

Last month's raid at the OPEKEPE HQ in Athens confiscated data and files, generating eight indictments and charges that will lead to a court trial

The period under scrutiny is between 2017 and 2020, and focuses on subsidies doled out to beneficiaries claiming pastureland that either did not belong to them or was never leased to them

An investigation by Politico has uncovered one of the largest fraud cases in Europe's agricultural sector, revealing an elaborate scheme that diverted approximately €45 million in EU subsidies annually.