The government is trying to get out of the difficult position it has found itself in with the OPEKEPE case, with Kyriakos Mitsotakis setting the tone of the government’s strategy for the second day in a row. After the phrase “we failed” he used on Sunday in his Facebook post, Mitsotakis returned yesterday by announcing the establishment of a task force to claim the illegally paid grants from those who received them, even though they were not due to them. This task force will be composed of members of the financial police and of the AADE, with the latter even taking the lion’s share in the investigation to find the “tricksters“.

Mitsotakis insisted yesterday on a self-critical line, saying he takes responsibility for other governments that in the past have acted with opacity in the field of agricultural subsidies, stressing that state structures should be reformed, even if this entails political costs. Mitsotakis will apparently insist on “cutting” the Gordian knot by announcing the inclusion of the sinful OPEKEPE under the “umbrella” of the AADE, so that agricultural subsidies can also move into the gov.gr era, as he put it yesterday.

In any case, at the highest levels of government they understand that the OPEKEPE case strikes at the core of the government’s reform narrative. And while it is still unclear whether it is causing poll losses and to what extent, the political problem for the government is the old-party attitudes revealed in the contentious dialogues.

“We should not adopt the logic of set-off, nor is it sufficient to say that these voting practices were time-honoured, done by other factions. The citizens voted for us to change the bad texts, not to perpetuate them,” Mitsotakis said, sending a message to ministers and “blue” executives.

Crisis management

It is, however, a given that in the Mansion House they have reverted to crisis management mode. Mitsotakis, together with the deputy prime minister, Kostis Hatzidakis, the deputy prime minister, Giorgos Mylonakis, the state minister, Akis Skertsos, and the government spokesman, Pavlos Marinakis, are in the “foreground”, formulating the strategy.

Government officials explain that the first and fundamental step was the abolition of OPEKEPE, in direct consultation with the Commission, while the departure of Makis Voridis and the three now former deputy ministers from the government’s line-up was also announced in quick moves. In an effort to prevent the government from broadcasting one-dimensional even important bills were presented at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, such as the “small recovery fund” of more than 8 billion euros. that was later specified in the Environment Ministry, and Niki Kerameos’ labor bill.

In this context, however, the government yesterday clearly cut out the scenarios and new resignations, against the backdrop of the dialogues between the office managers of Yannis Kefalogiannis and Christos Kellas, thus making clear that there is a separation of responsibilities.

The decisions and the warnings

In any case, the government is invited in the next period to take decisions regarding the parliamentary investigation of the case. With the data so far, ND seems rather reluctant to Primary Investigation concerning Makis Voridis, while as for Lefteris Avgenakis no final decision has been made, given that the entire case file is still being examined.

In any case, the ND will not submit its own proposal, as it did in the case of Christos Triandopoulos and Kostas Karamanlis, and will argue on the basis of the PASOK proposal announced yesterday by Nikos Androulakis. The dominant scenario at the moment is that the Southwest will not consent, but this remains to be finalised.

In any case, the case has re-energized centrifugal tendencies within the party’s parliamentary group. Dimitris Markopoulos, who is now moving in the logic of open remarks, has left spikes for the inability of Maximou and the…excel to predict developments, while Stelios Petsas yesterday called on the government to prevent any new developments and became the first ND MP in favor of a preliminary investigation into the two former ministers mentioned. And Theodoros Karaoglou also said that no set-offs are allowed and insisted that “we are not all the same.”