Kyriakos Mitsotakis following developments in the OPEKEPE case, is asking the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to determine immediately whether and against whom it will pursue prosecutions.
In his message, he states: “Following the latest developments in the OPEKEPE case, I address you today without circumlocution or evasions. This is my responsibility, as Prime Minister but also as President of a major political formation whose history is intertwined with the course of post-dictatorship Greece, with its good and less good moments.
I want to make three observations.
First, the transmission of case files to Parliament requesting the lifting of immunity for 11 New Democracy MPs constitutes a serious development, on which I must comment in detail.
I remind you that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office was established in 2020 and was fully supported by our government. The material on which it bases its requests is the product of lawful wiretaps conducted by prosecuting authorities, again under this government. Without any interference in their work, of course. Concerning events not from today, but from 2021.
The government members mentioned in the case immediately submitted their resignations. The immunity requests will be discussed tomorrow in Parliament’s Ethics Committee. It was, after all, New Democracy that amended the Constitution so that the lifting of MPs’ immunity would become the rule rather than the exception. Our MPs are honored by their decision to request the lifting of their parliamentary protection.
However, from the initial examination of the evidence, it is clear that not all cases have the same gravity. One thing, however, is certain: none of our MPs is accused of gaining financial benefit.
Given that Western legal civilization has fought to establish the presumption of innocence, I emphasize that I will do everything in my power to defend it. This is why I ask the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, after the lifting of our MPs’ immunity, to proceed rapidly with all investigative actions and to determine whether, how many, and which individuals it intends to prosecute.
And when I say rapidly, I mean it. Because we are talking about our MPs who have already suffered personal as well as political damage. They therefore have the minimum right to defend themselves.
My second observation about OPEKEPE concerns the scourge of clientelist relations, which for decades passed like an old-party “baton” from the hands of one government to the next. I have stood self-critically against it many times, as well as for the fact that I did not make drastic interventions earlier to break the “abscess”.
However, the great reform is now being implemented: OPEKEPE, as we knew it, no longer exists. The responsibility for determining and paying agricultural subsidies has been transferred to AADE. And just as we don’t seek favors from AADE for tax matters today, the same will apply henceforth to subsidies. This is a major change that will greatly benefit every honest farmer and livestock breeder.
Allow me here a more personal tone. Enough with the hypocrites who “suddenly discovered” that favoritisms in the country started in 2019. Such clientelist relations have accompanied the Greek state since its establishment. They are among the main reasons for our national backwardness compared to Europe.
I speak to you from the heart. Obviously, I did not emerge from political “parthenogenesis.” Any MP who is elected by preference vote, maintains a political office, and claims never to have done any favor is simply a liar.
However, since 2019 I have been fighting to transform Greece into a modern European state, where you won’t need to personally know the MP in order to be treated with dignity by the Public sector.
The great bet of digital modernization that we are winning day by day aims not only at a better daily life for everyone, but at addressing the small or greater corruption that may be hidden in every process involving human factors. The mentalities of centuries, you see, unfortunately do not change from one moment to the next. That’s why we must deprive favoritism of its political “oxygen”.
How?
Today pensions are issued in a short time and not in three years. So why would you call the MP to ask for yours to come out faster? In the country, when there are enough ICU beds, what is the reason for someone to demand preferential treatment? From the moment traffic citations are served automatically and digitally, who will be able to want their own erased?
Now that military service is being modernized and everyone serves in the Army under the same terms, military service favoritism loses its meaning.
And when, as we are planning, satellites record crops and all animals have electronic marking, we definitively end non-existent herds and virtual pastures.
All these are policies already being implemented that change the “deep state.” To put it differently: only digital modernization and transparency can free us from outdated practices that have no place in the 21st century.
Finally, my third comment concerns the political system as a whole. No one – and I first – can close their eyes to the crisis of confidence, which is directed not only at institutions but also at the country’s political personnel as a whole. A challenge, of course, that concerns all liberal democracies. We, however, have a duty to deal with “our own house.”
We have reached, I think, a turning point. As Prime Minister, therefore, but also as President of a party that guarantees stability and security, I must assess the situation, not only as a lesson from a negative experience but also as a new starting point for battle with the “deep state.” With my own formation first becoming a force for breaking with wrongdoing and confronting, with honesty and courage, its own weaknesses.
Thus, I will propose for discussion in public dialogue a new package of institutional reforms, beyond our proposals for Constitutional Revision. Among them, the incompatibility of Minister and MP, with replacement of the Minister in Parliament by the first runner-up for as long as they participate in the Cabinet, and simultaneous upgrading of the MP’s role.
Obviously, the above proposals will be put to public consultation, so that they can be implemented after the next national elections. They will also be part of the commitments we will undertake, if the people trust us again. And in any case, they certainly signal my personal decision for the homeland to definitively win the war against the bonds of its past.
In other words, walking towards the milestone of 2030 and two centuries since the founding of the modern Greek state, we are called to confront all those chronic pathologies that we have not yet eradicated. And despite the difficulties, despite the reactions, I am sure that Greek women and men will support this effort. An effort to modernize and upgrade public life.
The country will defeat whatever comes from yesterday and holds it back. And its course henceforth will only be forward, with the first and decisive milestone being the 2027 elections.”
