Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday asked the European public prosecutor’s office to launch “without delay” proceedings against lawmakers suspected of involvement in alleged fraud related to EU agricultural subsidies.
European Union prosecutors last week said they were probing numerous members of the ruling New Democracy party as part of an investigation looking into whether beneficiaries of agriculture subsidies had made false claims.
Greek authorities estimate that the network had defrauded at least 23 million euros ($27 million) since it started around 2018.
Mitsotakis said that he had requesting the lifting of immunity of the 11 MPs who are under investigation and who, according to Greek media, are all members of his party.
“I am asking the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, once the immunity of our MPs has been lifted, to immediately take all investigative measures,” he said in a statement broadcast on public television, adding that it would have to “rule on whether, against how many, and against which individuals it intends to bring charges.”
Last week three cabinet members resigned over the scandal, which has piled pressure on Greece’s government.
Bananas on Mount Olympus
EU prosecutors first detailed the scam last May, accusing some beneficiaries of agriculture subsidies of making claims for land they did not own and exaggerating the number of animals on farms.
Cases under investigation included banana plantations on Mount Olympus and pastures declared on archaeological sites. Most of the fraudulent subsidies went to the island of Crete.
The allegations led to a string of raids and arrests last October, as well as long-running protests by legitimate farmers whose lawful subsidies were held up.
Mitsotakis, who has underlined that the fraud began before he came to power in 2019, has vowed to imprison the “thieves” responsible and to reclaim the funds.
On Monday Mitsotakis blamed “the scourge of cronyism” in the country “that for decades has been passed on… from one government to another.”
“Such crony relations have been the case in the Greek state since its creation,” he said, adding, “they are one of the main reasons for our national backwardness compared with Europe”.
Elections are scheduled in Greece next year. Mitsotakis’s conservative party leads in opinion polls, but is not expected to secure an absolute majority.