Speaking to Mega television on the morning of Holy Tuesday, Skrekas said he intended to file a memorandum and request the lifting of his parliamentary immunity. ‘We want a quick investigation to restore the truth,’ he said.
‘I have absolute certainty that what happened was fair and legal,’ he added. Asked about the upcoming elections, he said that ‘regardless of this case, I and all MPs and politicians are at the absolute disposal of the president of New Democracy, Kyriakos Mitsotakis’.
On the substance of the allegations, Skrekas said the case involved a farmer who had filed a request and that his intervention amounted to asking the administration: ‘Can you see if the mistake can be corrected? Not to distort reality but to restore it.’
He argued that when public administration fails to function properly, ‘people seek to find their rights. We are not talking about bribery.’ He characterised his role as checking whether an error could be remedied, and concluded by framing his actions as part of any MP’s duties: ‘The job of a member of parliament, in addition to parliamentary work, is to transfer problems to the centre.’
Skrekas is among a growing number of New Democracy MPs and officials whose names have emerged in the European Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into fraud at OPEKEPE, the agency responsible for distributing and auditing EU agricultural subsidies. Several have adopted a similar defence, characterising the alleged interventions as routine constituent services rather than corruption.
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