Greece Appoints New Ministers Following High-Level Resignations in Farm Scandal

Opposition parties swiftly criticized the appointment of Plevris.

“The far-right trajectory of Mitsotakis persists with the selection of Thanos Plevris, representing an inhumane, dead-end, and alarming approach for the refugee issue and the nation’s image,” noted the Syriza party in a statement.

The New Left party described his appointment as “a message of hatred, racism, authoritarianism.” They referenced past remarks by Plevris stating that “border security cannot exist without casualties, and, to be clear, if there are no deaths.”

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is investigating multiple cases where Greeks received EU agricultural funds for non-owned or leased pastureland, or for non-performed agricultural work, depriving authentic farmers of their rightful funds. This fraud was covered in a POLITICO investigation earlier this year.

The extensive case file was referred to the Greek parliament as it included information about the alleged “criminal offenses” involvement of two former ministers in charge of rural development and food.

Under Greek law, only the national parliament holds the power to investigate and prosecute current or former government members, which hinders the EPPO, despite its wide mandate to examine the misuse of EU funds, from pursuing these cases in Greece. The EPPO regards this as a breach of its founding EU regulation.

Earlier Saturday, two additional New Democracy officials resigned following their names appearing in the case file. Andreas Karasarinis, secretary of the ruling party’s agricultural organizations, and Yiannis Troullinos, a member of its political committee, submitted their resignations.