Explosive recorded conversations expose interventions for payments and inspections of livestock farmers at OPEKEPE and put former Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development and New Democracy MP Fotini Arabatzi under scrutiny, with her requesting the establishment of a preliminary committee in an attempt to counter charges of moral complicity in continuous breach of trust, following the transfer of the relevant case file from the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to Parliament.
Specifically, in a conversation recorded on August 26, 2021, the then Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development pressured the then president of the Organization, Dimitris Melas, for payment to a producer of Giorgos K., characteristically emphasizing: “don’t let anything go wrong”.
Moreover, she connected the request to political pressures, stating that “someone from a Karamanlis faction member” came to her office to ask for help for the specific livestock farmer. In the same communication, Ms. Arabatzi raised the issue of three livestock farmers from Angista Serres who were about to undergo re-inspection. Asking “what can we do about this?”, she received the answer from Mr. Melas that canceling the inspection would be “blatant”, but an extension could be given. The deputy minister then asked “not to treat him badly”, with the OPEKEPE president reassuring her.
The conversations that “burn” Fotini Arabatzi and Dimitris Melas (26/08/2021):
Dimitris Melas: Go ahead.
Fotini Arabatzi: I have two issues.
Dimitris Melas: Come on.
Fotini Arabatzi: One is, I actually have many issues, let’s go to the urgent ones. One has to do with that poor guy.
Dimitris Melas: Who we said that will…
Fotini Arabatzi: Yes. When will you pay him, please?
Dimitris Melas: Uh, fifteen I think it will be out by the end of September. End of September.
Fotini Arabatzi: What will be out?
Dimitris Melas: The first days I write it. He had a balance from what I remember. No, fifteen or eighteen? Fifteen I think. Anyway. Mid-October it will happen, because both will be paid.
Fotini Arabatzi: For sure like this?
Dimitris Melas: Yes yes yes.
Fotini Arabatzi: You know why? Because someone came;
Dimitris Melas: G… what’s his name?
Fotini Arabatzi: No, no. K… Giorgos.
Dimitris Melas: Eh K…yes.
Fotini Arabatzi: Someone came uh from a Karamanlis faction member.
Dimitris Melas: Yes.
Fotini Arabatzi: To tell us in the office, help Giorgos, I want to…
Dimitris Melas: Come on.
Fotini Arabatzi: Yes.
Dimitris Melas: I don’t have any disturbance here, from elsewhere though.
Fotini Arabatzi: Yes, you would have told me.
Dimitris Melas: Yes, that’s why.
Fotini Arabatzi: And generally, whatever disturbance you have I want you to tell me.
Dimitris Melas: Yes, of course, for Serres certainly.
Fotini Arabatzi: Great then, one is K. So I tell him within October?
Dimitris Melas: Yes, yes yes.
Fotini Arabatzi: Yes, to give him such an answer.
Dimitris Melas: Yes, of course, of course.
Fotini Arabatzi: Don’t let anything go wrong though.
Dimitris Melas: No, no. They will be paid.
Fotini Arabatzi: So one this and a second. Uh I have three tax numbers.
Dimitris Melas: Yes.
Fotini Arabatzi: Uh which they are doing to them, uh one of three, because they are together all three, it’s father and children.
Dimitris Melas: Yes, co-housed? Or aren’t they livestock farmers?
Fotini Arabatzi: They are livestock farmers.
Dimitris Melas: Yes, okay. Co-housed, in the same stable? Don’t you know?
Fotini Arabatzi: I don’t know if they are co-housed.
Dimitris Melas: Ok.
Fotini Arabatzi: What I know is that on September 20th they have an inspection. Who also had an inspection on 07/10/20. They called them yesterday from Thessaloniki.
Dimitris Melas: Where are these located?
Fotini Arabatzi: They are located in Angista Serres.
Dimitris Melas: There’s nothing new there.
Fotini Arabatzi: Yes, the man called me, he has never called me. His brother is also president, uh was incidentally and president of the community. He has never called me to ask for anything. He tells me, Fotini I’m at the end, they called me again yesterday to tell me. Last year he says on 07/10 they inspected us, I had surgery that day and was operated on. And I say, why didn’t you say anything?
Dimitris Melas: Bravo. Since he also had force majeure and such. Anyway.
Fotini Arabatzi: Now I’m sending you the tax numbers to see them, they called him from Thessaloniki yesterday. What can we do about this?
Dimitris Melas: Uh, look, once he’s not to be inspected and they’ve issued an inspection, it’s blatant to remove it. The only thing, if it’s useful to him, to get some extension.
Fotini Arabatzi: It is useful to him, and also, uh, not to treat him badly, is that possible?
Dimitris Melas: Yes, yes, it’s possible.
“I don’t have face for Giorgos”
A few months later, on November 16, 2021, Ms. Arabatzi returned insistently for the payment of the same producer, declaring: “I don’t have face for Giorgos”. In this dialogue, the then deputy minister used harsh language about the situation in the Organization, characterizing what was happening as “bullsh*t”.
In detail, the second dialogue between Fotini Arabatzi and Dimitris Melas (16/11/21):
Dimitris Melas: Come on my dear Fotini. Good morning.
Fotini Arabatzi: Good morning my dear Dimitris. How are you?
Dimitris Melas: What can I do? I’m dissolved.
Fotini Arabatzi: I know, I understand.
Dimitris Melas: Completely.
Fotini Arabatzi: And OPEKEPE is to blame for everything in the end.
Dimitris Melas: Yes yes. Yes.
Fotini Arabatzi: Bullsh*t.
Dimitris Melas: Everything is coming.
Fotini Arabatzi: Ah.
Dimitris Melas: To zero point. Okay, terrible delay Fotini and okay, I’m running to collect the uncollectible. Not that it was wrong. But everything, when it’s not done in its time and in the way it should be.
Fotini Arabatzi: And when it’s not explained politically.
Dimitris Melas: Exactly. And in the way it should be. It loses its meaning too, I mean for me to give you sunscreen when you’re already burned.
Fotini Arabatzi: What do I do with it?
Dimitris Melas: I’m burned, okay.
Fotini Arabatzi: But politicians, that’s what we’re here for. Because you are the technocrats.
Dimitris Melas: Right.
Fotini Arabatzi: And you implement and we must tell the narrative.
A little later, in the same conversation Fotini Arabatzi returns to the issue of Giorgos K.’s payment.
Fotini Arabatzi: And don’t forget about that guy.
Dimitris Melas: No, no, I have him as.
Fotini Arabatzi: Eh, I don’t have face for Giorgos, I beg you very much.
Dimitris Melas: K. I haven’t forgotten.
Fotini Arabatzi: When will we pay him?
Dimitris Melas: Both fourteen and eighteen would have been paid now, but the way he brought the ministerial decision at the last minute, we were all running to make new allocation and everything went backwards. I believe that by, within December, eighteen will also be paid.
Fotini Arabatzi: Look. I’ll send you his phone number.
Dimitris Melas: Yes great.
Fotini Arabatzi: I want you to call him. And tell him about all this bullying you’ve eaten.
Dimitris Melas: Yes send it to me.
Fotini Arabatzi: From me. Okay?
Dimitris Melas: Great, great. Yes of course.
