The European Public Prosecutor's Office forwarded the second file concerning the OPEKEPE case to the Supreme Court. According to reports, the file is expected to make its way to the Ministry of Justice and eventually to Parliament, involving 13 political figures - former and current ministers, as well as MPs - exclusively from the ruling party.
The faces of the new file
The list under consideration includes top executives of New Democracy:
- Kostas Tsiaras (current Minister for Rural Development)
- Costas Ach. Karamanlis (former Minister for Transport)
- Spilios Livanos (former Minister for Rural Development)
- Fotini Arabatzi (former Minister of State for Rural Development)
- Kostas Skrekas (Secretary of the SW)
- Yannis Kefalogiannis
- Panayiotis Mitarakis
- Dimitris Vartzopoulos
- Maximos Senetakis
- Vassilis Vassiliadis
- Christos Boukoros
- Theophilos Leontaridis
- Katerina Papakosta
The role of Article 86 on the responsibility of Ministers
From a legal point of view, the involvement of persons is different. For the Spilius Lebanon and the Fotini Arabatzi Article 86 is triggered, as their names are directly linked to the period when they were at the head of the Ministry of Rural Development.
On the contrary, for active government officials such as Mr.Tsiaras, Mr.Kefalogiannis and Mr.Vartzopoulos, it is clarified that during the period in question they held different portfolios (for example, Mr.Tsiaras was Minister of Justice). Nevertheless, this fact does not invalidate the political dimension of the issue, opening a new front for the government.
The attitude of Maximos and the dilemma of resignation
For the moment, Maximou is taking a wait-and-see attitude, noting that it is waiting for the official transmission of the file to Parliament before taking a position.
The question that arises, however, is one of political precedent. In the first OPEKEPE case, the Prime Minister had asked for the resignation of the government officials involved (M. Voridis, T. Hadjivassiliou, Ch. Boukoros, D. Stamenitis). If the same tactics are followed, then a sitting minister (K. Tsiaras), two deputy ministers (G. Kefalogiannis, D. Vartzopoulos) and the party secretary (K. Skrekas) will face the exit.
Government sources say that final decisions will be taken «on a case-by-case basis», once the government has the file in its hands and assesses the actual degree of involvement of each person.
