With the testimony of Makis Voridis, the work of the Parliament’s investigation committee on his case continues today OKAY. The former Minister of Rural Development and Food (2019–2021) is expected to defend the legality of his actions, focusing on the controversial “I agree” that accompanied the allocation of eligible pastures in 2019. He will, in fact, refer to the testimony of the former president of OPEKEPE Athanasiou Kapreli, who testified that the phrase in question was entered after his own proposal and in accordance with a ministerial decision that has been in force since 2015. He even recalled that the former ministers of SYRIZA Evangelos Apostolou and Stavros Arachovitis had also put similar signatures.
It will be a tipping point in the Boridis deposition and the mention of his name in the case file of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which arose from the testimony of Grigoris Varras. The latter succeeded Kaprelis in the organization, before resigning at the request of the then minister. Today, Varras holds the position of adviser on agricultural issues at the General Secretariat of the Prime Minister and, testifying at the inquest, argued that Voridis’ “I agree” constituted consent to the illegal distribution of the national reserve and to illegal subsidies.
Sources from the former minister’s environment leak that his testimony today will include “surprises” and documents that will completely overturn Varra’s claims, revealing – as they say – the real reasons for his dismissal. Mr. Voridis is said to be determined to prove that the implementation of a ministerial decision cannot be considered illegal and may to provide evidence showing that Varras himself applied the same technical solution of 2019 to the payments of 2020 – the one it now calls “illegal”. With his testimony, the cycle of testimonies from all the Ministers of Rural Development for the 2019-2025 period is effectively completed, with the only outstanding one being that of Spilios Libanos. It is recalled that the current minister Kostas Tsiaras has characterized the OPEKEPE case as “extremely problematic”, emphasizing the efforts to clean up the organization and the cooperation with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
For his part, Lefteris Avgenakis repeated that he requested the speeding up of checks on the reserved VAT numbers to avoid the “hostage” of farmers, clarifying that “I never pushed for the release of TINs without control”. At the same time, he revealed that he demanded the resignation of the then president of OPEKEPE, Evangelos Simandrakos, due to irregularities in the payments that caused fines of tens of millions of euros. Giorgos Georgantas, on the other hand, insisted on the need for the transition of the organization to the government cloud gov.gr, arguing that the relevant effort that started during his days was blocked by strong private interests.
Frappes, butchers and Ferraris are coming
After the conclusion of the Voridis deposition, the members of the examination board will discuss the renewal of the witness list. According to information, New Democracy intends to accept every proposal of the opposition, provided that the witnesses are directly related to the case. Thus, in addition to the Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Giorgos Mylonakis – who has already expressed his intention to testify – Yiannis Bratakos and Stavros Papastavrou are expected to be summoned. The presence of Giorgos Xylouris (“frappes”), Andreas Stratakis (“butcher”) and former ND party leader Popis Semertzidou is also considered certain.
Finally, the name of Nikos Bounakis, a close associate of PASOK president Nikos Androulakis and owner of the KYD, is expected to be added to the new list of witnesses of the majority.