Greece: state-organised subsidies fraud?
Millions of euros in EU agricultural subsidies are said to have been illegally siphoned off in Greece. The EU Public Prosecutor's Office speaks of an 'organised fraud scheme' which involved the Greek state subsidy agency OPEKEPE. Migration Minister Makis Voridis, who was agriculture minister during the period in question, and three state secretaries resigned on Friday. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has announced new control mechanisms and a zero-tolerance policy towards clientelism.
No lessons learned from the crisis
Protagon sees a mentality problem that goes beyond political circles:
“Have we ultimately learnt nothing from the ten-year crisis which amounted to a national defeat? Oddly enough, the dialogues that have now come to light are not that shocking. ... At the very least, a large part of Greek society has not yet decided whether we want to live according to the democratic rules of equal treatment or according to the logic of cronyism and clientelism. ... If we want to stay on the European path something has to change. ... That's why it's good that the government is now being driven into a corner. Because it will be forced to take action.”
World record in lack of transparency
This is just the beginning, Naftemporiki sighs:
“Many believe that the independent European Public Prosecutor's Office has more surprises in store for us. The investigations it ordered into allegations concerning the recovery fund are also nearing completion. Over the last six years our country has broken the world record for the highest amount of direct awards of government contracts in peacetime: almost 90 percent of public contracts were awarded without a tender process. In many cases they went to shell companies that took state money without any oversight. The OPEKEPE scandal is simply the natural continuation of this mechanism. It is not an exception to the rule. It is the rule. Corruption is a cancer whose metastases have spread far and wide.”
A pathetic country with a pathetic government
Instead of criticising Brussels, Athens should focus on getting its own affairs in order, writes Estia:
“Would we ever have learnt anything about OPEKEPE if the European Public Prosecutor's Office hadn't intervened? ... No. The tragedy is that we - Greece, one of the oldest members of the EU - are now rushing to delegitimise the work of the European institutions. The prime minister claimed, before he had even seen [EU prosecutor] Kövesi's investigation file, that this was a 'European' affair. ... But no other EU state has ever been asked to investigate ministerial responsibilities. This is a purely Greek affair. Unfortunately we are a pathetic country. With a pathetic government.”