The European Public Prosecutor's Office has sent three separate case files to Athens naming 18 current and former members of parliament and ministers from the ruling New Democracy party in connection with a fraud investigation into Greece's agricultural payments agency OPEKEPE, triggering expectations of imminent cabinet reshuffles and parliamentary immunity proceedings.
The first case file, submitted under Greece's ministerial accountability law, names former Agriculture Minister Spilios Livanos and former Deputy Agriculture Minister Fotini Arampatzi for their actions in 2021.
That file will be forwarded directly to parliament without prior evaluation.
The second and most politically charged file requests the lifting of parliamentary immunity for eleven sitting lawmakers. Those named are Maximos Senetakis, Vasilis Vasiliadis, Giannis Kefalogiannis, Notis Mitarakis, Katerina Papakosta, Kostas Karamanlis, Christos Boukoros, Theophilos Leontaridis, Kostas Tsiara, Kostas Skrekas and Dimitris Vartzópoulos.
They face investigation for allegedly instigating unlawful acts by OPEKEPE officials through telephone interventions. A third file covers five former lawmakers, who require no immunity waiver and will proceed directly through the courts.
Charges under investigation include fraud, breach of trust and dereliction of duty, some at felony level and others as misdemeanors. Legal sources warned that misdemeanor charges relating to acts committed in 2020-21 risk expiring within 2026 unless proceedings advance quickly enough to extend the statute of limitations by three years.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis described the development as serious, saying each case would be evaluated individually once the files reach parliament, expected by Thursday or Friday at the latest.
The case echoes an earlier OPEKEPE file that forced then-Migration Minister Makis Voridis and three deputy ministers — Tasos Chatzivasileiou, Mr. Boukoros and Dionysis Stamenitis — to resign. Sources close to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the same precedent was likely to apply to those now implicated.