Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis proposed on Monday that politicians who are appointed ministers should not be allowed to serve in the country’s parliament after the 2027 general election.
Under Mitsotakis’ proposal, ministers would be replaced in Parliament by the next candidate on the electoral list, a move he said would increase the role of lawmakers.
The proposal came after the resignation of three of his cabinet ministers on Friday after their names appeared in the investigation file of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has requested the lifting of the immunity of 11 lawmakers from the ruling New Democracy party to investigate them for their possible role in the fraud scandal involving European agricultural subsidy funds.
This issue has angered the public and worried farmers in the country.
Regarding the investigation, the Greek Prime Minister said: “One thing is certain – none of the MPs of the New Democracy is accused of financial benefits from the subsidy fraud scheme. I ask the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to act as soon as possible with the steps of the investigation after the removal of the immunity of our MPs and to decide how many and which individuals have been prosecuted. We are talking about our MPs who have been harmed both personally and the political one,” emphasized Mitsotakis.
Last year, European prosecutors charged dozens of people with document fraud, through which they benefited from millions of euros in EU subsidies for the Greek agricultural sector.
In June of last year, the EU fined the Greek agency that is responsible for the distribution of these subsidies with 392 million euros.
