ByTasos Kokkinidis
June 30, 2025
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis admitted failure in the EU farm subsidies scandal, with some opposition leaders calling for his resignation and snap elections.
“You won’t hear me attempt any ‘trade-offs’ with the past, along the lines that ‘others did the same’ in order to justify inertia in the present and for the future,” Mitsotakis said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“I know that you put your trust in us to change those things that are badly done and not perpetuate them. However hard the battle with the deep state may be. As it turns out, the chronic weaknesses of OPEKEPE enabled clientelist behavior expressed as favors. Unfortunately, including by our own party. Significant efforts for a clean up were made but, let us be honest: we failed,” he admitted.
The time had come to “cleanse the rot,” he added, noting that the government’s decision to abolish OPEKEPE and transfer its operations to AADE was in aid of this. Mitsotakis also made it clear that anyone proven to have received European funds to which they were not entitled will be asked to return these.
“With respect to the political behaviors, I have only one thing to say: if we want to truly be a European democracy, we cannot tolerate practices that are reminiscent or appear to be reminiscent of transactions for a few votes. This concerns all of politics, which must at last say no to old-style partisanship,” he underlined.
Opposition targets Mitsotakis in Greek farm subsidies scandal
Opposition parties have launched scathing attacks on Prime Minister Mitsotakis following the unfolding scandal at OPEKEPE, the Greek agricultural payments agency.
“The Greek people are watching the new major scandal at OPEKEPE in shock,” declared Nikos Androulakis, leader of the main opposition PASOK-KINAL, in a commentary published in Sunday’s Vima newspaper.
“This is not a scandal confined to speculation and indications; it is tangible, documented by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office,” he added. “It not only implicates the political figures involved but once again exposes the unreliability and corruption inherent in New Democracy’s ‘executive’ state.”
Androulakis continued:
“The government of New Democracy and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, personally, have proven themselves unable to meet society’s expectations. The Greek people will no longer tolerate paying the price for the corruption of a government that treats them with contempt. They deserve a better prospect in life.”
Adding to the chorus of criticism, SYRIZA President Sokratis Famellos directly called for Mitsotakis’s resignation. “Mr. Mitsotakis, since you admit today that you ‘failed,’ it is time for you to resign,” Famellos asserted. “You ‘failed’ in OPEKEPE, in profiteering, in Tempi, in wiretapping, and in foreign policy.”
“You did not only ‘fail,’ but you personally set up this anti-democratic regime of collusion and corruption. Our country does not deserve a failed prime minister and a failed government. The only solution is your resignation, elections and progressive change,” Famellos emphasized.
Greece’s government announced a cabinet reshuffle on Saturday, bringing several new ministers into key roles following the farm subsidies scandal. The shake-up follows Friday’s dramatic political crisis in the ruling New Democracy party after the resignation of four senior officials, all caught up in a massive fraud investigation surrounding OPEKEPE. The OPEKEPE was Greece’s state agency that handed out European agricultural subsidies.
The EU fine that started it all
This was all prompted by the OPEKEPE scandal, uncovered by European investigators who classify this as systematic abuse of European farm subsidy programs. This is money that went to people who weren’t even farmers, as eligibility requirements were bent or entirely overlooked.
The European Commission hit Greece with a €392.2 million fine, and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a full investigation to uncover what happened with farm subsidies in Greece all these years.
The Greek government’s response was to shut down OPEKEPE altogether—essentially admitting the system was totally broken and the situation was beyond repair. Nonetheless, closing an agency doesn’t resolve the political damage, as the scandal has already prompted hard hits from all corners of Greece’s opposition.
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