Greek government picks fight with European prosecutor over huge farm fraud case

ATHENS — Greece’s right-wing ruling party has gone on the offensive against top European Prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi over her probe into a massive corruption scandal in Athens involving hundreds of millions of euros of EU farm funds.

Members of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ conservative New Democracy party have been closely linked to the investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), and several ministers and deputy ministers have already been forced to quit.

Over recent days, New Democracy politicians have taken a far more aggressive response to the case, launching often highly personal attacks on Kövesi and her investigation.

They have slammed her cases as “ridiculous” and — because she is Romanian — accused her of using the tactics of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s communist police state. Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis stressed that Athens had a “sovereign right” to withdraw from cooperation with the Luxembourg-based EPPO in the future, saying it had conducted its work “very badly.”

“The approach taken by the EPPO gives me the impression of organized and targeted political interference and raises serious questions in my mind as to whether or not we were right to support this institution,” wrote Georgiadis in a lengthy post on X.

Deputy Minister of Migration and Asylum Sofia Voultepsi tried to cast Kövesi as being shaped by Ceaușescu’s regime, which fell in 1989, referring to the use of “informants” — seemingly drawing a parallel with the whistleblowers in the Greek corruption case.

“They come from a country with no tradition of separation of powers,” she told SKAI TV. “Under Ceaușescu, children were made to snitch on their parents … I don’t want Ceaușescu-style justice in Greece.”

Mitsotakis has been more muted in his criticism, but he has hinted at a political agenda by complaining of “selective leaks” related to the case.

The farm funds scandal that has convulsed Athens centers on many Greeks improperly receiving farm subsidies for land they did not own, or for farm work they did not do. The multi-year scam was the subject of a POLITICO investigation last year. At the heart of the case is OPEKEPE, the politically connected state organization responsible for distributing EU funds.

Greece’s parliament voted on Wednesday to lift the immunity of 13 New Democracy MPs over their alleged involvement in the scandal. All of the MPs defended themselves, saying they wanted their immunity to be lifted so that they could clear their names. They called the charges against them unfounded.

Corruption as a way of life

Speaking at the annual Delphi Forum on Thursday, Kövesi dismissed the criticism from the New Democracy politicians and defended her team in Greece.

“I think all this noise is an attempt to shift discussion from the real topic,” she said, as Georgiadis watched her from the front row. “The main topic here is what really happened in OPEKEPE and who is responsible for what. OPEKEPE is an acronym for corruption, nepotism and clientelism … These are defined as a crime in the Greek law and in almost all the other members of the EU. No one in the world will convince [us] that these categories are part of job descriptions of politicians, here in Greece or somewhere in the EU.”

“I’m tired to hear: ‘This is the way we do things here in Greece.’ Really? I don’t think so,” she continued, adding that she receives supportive letters from Greeks — including one from a farmer who said she couldn’t receive subsidies because she didn’t know anyone at the political level. “When you receive these kinds of letters you cannot believe that the Greek people accept corruption as a way of life.”

Kövesi has confirmed that the EPPO has also received complaints regarding the misappropriation of funds in the health sector.

In response to openly expressed threats from Georgiadis that the terms of some of her prosecutors in the Athens office, which are expiring in a few months, would not be renewed, she argued that any disagreements could be settled at the European Court of Justice.

“What is the reason to not renew their mandate? … Who has an interest to take out these prosecutors from the cases, from the EPPO, while they did an outstanding job?”

Georgiadis also attacked Popi Papandreou, one of the EU prosecutors on the case, while giving an interview with the Action24 television channel, arguing that she is “blackmailing to get her term extended.”

According to an official with knowledge of the discussions, Kövesi raised the issue of term renewals at the EPPO office in Athens during a meeting with Minister of Justice Giorgos Floridis in Athens on Wednesday, but he said he was not in charge of the issue.

Call for swift action

The EPPO investigation sent to the Greek parliament contains intercepted conversations between MPs, ministers and their associates, as well as officials from OPEKEPE. The conversations appear to involve politicians requesting favors in the allocation of farm funds — and a pliant approach to controls —in ways that would please key voter bases.

The case file sent to parliament only concerns alleged crimes committed in 2021, while the investigation into 2022–2025 continues.

“EPPO is respected and does its job, but selective leaks and investigations that arrive in pieces are not justified,” Mitsotakis told parliament. “It is one thing for a member of parliament to take an interest in a citizen who comes to their office, and quite another when a criminal act has been proven.”

He called on the EPPO to expedite the investigation and announced new legislative action to ensure proceedings involving political figures are resolved swiftly.

Kövesi acknowledged the need for speed, but emphasized her resources were limited, with only one police officer and two prosecutors on the case, who must review thousands of documents and listen to hundreds of wiretaps. She added she had secured another commitment from the Greek authorities to increase resources at the EPPO office in Athens.