Speaking on SKAI radio, Georgiadis said: ‘It was created in 2021 when some Europeans decided to create it. We do not owe it great respect as an institution. It may even be useless. It will be judged whether it works by the people from whom they received the trust to do their job.’

He added that not all 27 EU member states had accepted the EPPO, and argued that an institution should be judged by the conduct of its representatives. ‘If the representatives, instead of fighting corruption, go and play political games, then no, they are not worthy of the institution, but they will take the institution by the throat,’ he said.

Georgiadis claimed that none of the EPPO’s case files would stand up in court and said he would not want to vote in favour of lifting the parliamentary immunity of his colleagues. ‘Not a single case file stands up in court. Even Papakosta’s is a more difficult case, but criminally indifferent,’ he said, referring to New Democracy MP Katerina Papakosta, who has herself requested the lifting of her immunity.

He accused EPPO officials of allowing the case file to leak and producing evidence that ‘any lawyer who has seen it cries with laughter’, naming European Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi in his remarks.

‘An unimaginable political game is unfolding before our eyes,’ he continued. ‘Either we accept that there is a political game, or they are legally irrelevant at the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is not possible.’

On the question of immunity, Georgiadis said he faced a ‘big conscience problem’ in voting to lift his colleagues’ parliamentary protection, but acknowledged he was being forced to do so because the MPs themselves had requested it. He suggested the government may need to ‘intervene legislatively so that the trials can be held quickly’.

Turning to the opposition, Georgiadis was dismissive: ‘These accusations do not stand up in any court of law. Let no opposition MP dare to tell me about a bribe to a New Democrat.’ He added: ‘Seeing PASOK or SYRIZA MPs, and all parties, coming out to accuse my colleagues because they say they called OPEKEPE, I’m a bit of a brat.’

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