SYRIZA and New Left call for criminal inquiry into two former agriculture ministers over subsidy fraud
The joint conclusion characterises the scandal not as a straightforward administrative failure but as a deeply political affair. According to the findings, the committee uncovered a system of artificially manufactured eligibility, deliberate circumvention of controls, and the distribution of EU agricultural subsidies to fictitious or ineligible beneficiaries, with a potential loss running to hundreds of millions of euros. Testimonies heard by the committee, together with referrals from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, describe a systematic practice sustained by administrative continuity and political tolerance.
The two parliamentary groups attribute political responsibility to two former ministers of rural development. Makis Voridis is accused of failing to ensure oversight or impose adequate controls. Lefteris Avgenakis is alleged to have maintained a framework of administrative instability and to have exerted pressure for the release of payments before audits had been completed.
The conclusion also extends responsibility to the prime minister, arguing that in what it terms the government’s ‘executive state’ model, the concentration of powers entails concentrated political responsibility. The document states that either the prime minister was aware of the situation and failed to intervene, or he was not aware of it, in which case the government’s own narrative of an effective, well-governed state collapses.
SYRIZA and New Left are calling for a preliminary investigation committee to be established to examine Voridis and Avgenakis for complicity and instigation in criminal breach of trust against the financial interests of the European Union, in connection with losses exceeding 120,000 euros.
The two parliamentary groups stated that they will continue to pursue the full dimensions of the scandal, demanding transparency, accountability, and the protection of both public and European funds.
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