Former Minister of Agricultural Development Lefteris Avghenakis maintained an institutional line during his eight-hour testimony to the parliamentary committee investigating OPEKEPE. Throughout his testimony, he emphasized that there is nothing illegal against him, stressing that “whatever has been said against me belongs to the realm of speculation and political impressions.” In his effort to deflect opposition criticism regarding his tenure at the Ministry of Agricultural Development, he spoke of an “attempt at speculation.” After emphasizing that he was testifying as a “witness” and not as an “accused,” he attributed “refusal to cooperate” to the former president of the Organization, Evangelos Simandrakos. “No conversation of mine or Mr. Voridis’, no evidence and no assessment of illegal action by me exists in the European prosecutor’s file that was forwarded, without evaluation, to Parliament,” he emphasized during his lengthy testimony. He also added that he never exerted pressure or requested the release of any tax identification numbers.
According to Lefteris Avghenakis, “Simandrakos’ removal was requested for 9 serious reasons.” These were, as he said, “the problematic payments made in 2023 to blocked tax numbers, the signing of contracts with technical consultants without clear deliverables, his refusal to provide data to the chartered accountants’ body at risk of OPEKEPE losing accreditation, his problematic cooperation with key Organization figures by sabotaging them.” “There was no restructuring of OPEKEPE to operate transparently, effectively and properly. I identified institutional and administrative problems and acted strictly because I saw the problem coming,” he continued.
OPEKEPE: What Avghenakis answers about “Frape”
Referring to the wiretaps and what is heard being said about him by George Xylouris (i.e., “Frape“), Mr. Avghenakis stated that “whether he tells the truth or not, let Mr. Xylouris answer that, but what I want to tell you is that in another wiretap he is heard cursing me for fourteen generations and describing me with phrases I cannot say in here, and this is because I told him that everything would be done legally.” There was also intense confrontation with Milena Apostolaki, as addressing the PASOK rapporteur he told her that “no one is convicted based on the content of wiretaps, but on their actions.” He also added that what characterizes him is “institutionality,” something that – as he said – was shown by the fact that “when I received a recommendation to consent to the payment of 52 million euros for pastures without animals in Crete, I didn’t do it.”
However, the confrontation between the two continued when, against the backdrop of events unfolding in the last 24 hours in Crete, the former minister asked not to target Crete, with Milena Apostolaki accusing him that “he himself has contributed to targeting it.” In response to a question from SYRIZA’s Alexandros Meikopulos about whether he confirms that his name is mentioned in the case file “because you’re trying to make us all look crazy,” as he said, Mr. Avghenakis answered positively with the explanation that they are not mentioned as defendants.
He also didn’t fail to leave barbs against the Region for the absence of grazing plans and the explosion of declared goats and sheep in Crete from 2019 to 2025, while he blamed PASOK-KINAL MP Manolis Chnaris. “The deputy regional governor responsible for these issues was Chnaris. What I can say with certainty is that there has been an attempt at speculation against my person and my ministry. I am here as a witness and colleague,” he said characteristically.
New Democracy sources: Opposition targeting falls flat
“Lefteris Avghenakis provided answers and detailed evidence to the Parliamentary Committee. The former Minister of Agricultural Development who was called as a witness confirmed that OPEKEPE’s problem is chronic and presented a series of documents on the initiatives he took during his tenure to address them,” New Democracy sources emphasize. “In his marathon testimony, he demolished the opposition’s claims that systematically attempt to target New Democracy and underlined that his goal was not cover-up but cleanup,” the same sources note.
PASOK: The… Oscar of institutionality to Lefteris Avghenakis
Meanwhile, PASOK sources, commenting on his testimony, awarded him the… Oscar of institutionality. “Mr. Avghenakis’ testimony fully confirmed the deep problem of institutional deviation and party control that characterized his tenure and the Organization’s administration during his Ministry, although he claimed the… Oscar of institutionality today by defending his administration’s actions as well as his collaborators’,” they said characteristically.
SYRIZA: Avghenakis constantly invokes “institutionality”
According to SYRIZA, “Lefteris Avghenakis pretends he is not suspect of criminal liability and constantly invokes ‘institutionality’.” “While, as demonstrated by questions from SYRIZA-PS rapporteur Alexandros Meikopulos, he ‘transferred’ his party friends from the Ministry of Sports to the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food, without having the necessary qualifications. These are the ‘blue’ officials who, as members of OPEKEPE’s administration, conversed with ‘blue’ party bosses, people from society’s margins and lately also from criminal law, like the notorious ‘Frape’ (G. Xylouris), in order to ‘paint’ Crete in New Democracy’s colors. Mr. Avghenakis himself confessed before Committee members that he knew the (also… ‘institutional’) Mr. Xylouris very well beforehand,” Koumoundourou sources stated.
“Mr. Avghenakis is so institutional that he has been recorded in the agricultural world’s consciousness because, considering Crete as his ‘fiefdom,’ he was the Minister who pressed for payment of the notorious blocked tax numbers on the island. Yet today, he attempts to ‘load’ all responsibility for the sinful actions at the Organization onto its former president, Vangelis Simandrakos,” SYRIZA sources concluded.
New Left: Avghenakis as “Robin Hood of farmers”
For its part, New Left, referring to his testimony, argued that “former Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Lefteris Avghenakis attempted to appear as ‘Robin Hood of farmers’ at the Committee. With abundant self-justification and zero self-criticism, he tried to shirk all responsibility, blame everything on Mr. Simandrakos and present his interventions to OPEKEPE as ‘institutional mediation.’ Going so far as to ask… ‘not to target Crete,’ as if the public discussion concerns a geographical area and not his own political actions.”
