Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has carried out a swift cabinet reshuffle, forcing out three ministers and a deputy minister within hours of the European Public Prosecutor's OPEKEPE farm subsidies case file reaching parliament, replacing them with figures designed to signal a clean break from the scandal.
Civil Protection Minister Giannis Kefalogiannis and Agriculture Minister Kostas Tsiara submitted their resignations, as did Deputy Health Minister Dimitris Vartzópoulos, all named in the European prosecutor's case files. Deputy Agriculture Minister Christos Kellas was also replaced despite not being named in the proceedings, as Mr. Mitsotakis signaled a broader restructuring of the ministry at the center of the scandal.
Former European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas was appointed Agriculture Minister, with government sources describing the choice as a signal of intent to transform the ministry from "a subsidies and compensation office, as it has been for decades, into a modern structure compatible with the cleanup already underway."
Evangelos Tournas replaced Mr. Kefalogiannis at Civil Protection, and Makarios Lazaridis was appointed Deputy Agriculture Minister. Mr. Vartzópoulos's health portfolio will be redistributed internally.
Beyond the cabinet, New Democracy party secretary Kostas Skrekas and parliamentary spokesman Notis Mitarakis also resigned from their party roles.
The eleven implicated lawmakers began receiving their copies of the case file late Friday, with the parliamentary Ethics Committee to receive full copies Saturday morning. Each file exceeds 1,000 pages. Immunity lifting proceedings are scheduled for Holy Tuesday, with a full plenary vote expected after Easter.
Government sources noted that two of the eleven lawmakers face felony-level charges involving alleged interventions exceeding 120,000 euros, while the remainder face misdemeanor counts of varying severity.