Greece’s national co-ordinator for European Union funds and women’s entrepreneurship, Kalliopi Semertzidou, has resigned following reports allegedly linking her and her husband to an ongoing investigation into subsidy fraud.
On August 5, anti-money laundering officers raided the offices of the Organisation for Payments and Control of EU Subsidies (OPEKEPE), the national distributor of EU agricultural funds subsidies.
It has been mired in scandal ever since the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) issued a 3,000-page case file to the Greek parliament exposing large-scale alleged corruption implicating the government.
Semertzidou is a member of the ruling centre-right New Democracy Party and, according to allegations in Greek media, received almost €2.5 million in subsidies from OPEKEPE in the period from 2019 until August 4 this year.
She denied being involved in illegal subsidies from OPEKEPE. She said the publications in the media were false, defamatory, misleading and slanderous and threatened to take legal action against those who involved her in the alleged subsidy scam.
“We state explicitly that the related posts in the media and the above platforms referring to subsidies from OPEKEPE amounting to €1.5 million etc, as well as the claim that the Anti-Money Laundering Authority has taken action, have nothing to do with us and do not concern us in any way”, the press release from Semertzidou’s office read on August 3.
Later, she announced her resignation in a letter addressed to party secretary Kostas Skrekas, which she also shared on Instagram.
“Recently, my family and I have been the target of an unjust and targeted attack, fuelled by false and defamatory reports on social media and in the press,” she stated.
“We are not involved in any case currently under investigation by the Hellenic Anti-Money Laundering Authority,” she added.
Semertzidou said that her resignation was intended to shield the party from politically motivated attacks and reaffirmed her support for New Democracy and her intention to remain an active member.
Government sources confirmed to local media that Semertzidou had been removed from party electoral lists in 2023, allegedly due to concerns over her public image. They added that her partner had opposed the decision, directly criticising party secretary at the time, Pavlos Marinakis.
During the raid on August 5, investigators from Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority reportedly examined records relating to 10 individuals operating in the Thessaly region who were suspected of allegedly receiving illicit payments, according to news outlet Kathimerini.
They seized both digital and physical evidence in order to assess the legality of the subsidies and establish whether they may be concealing further criminal activity, the outlet said.
According to a prior audit, the allegedly fraudulent subsidies in Thessaly amounted to €1.7 million in total.
Some Greek media have continued to allege that Semertzidou or more specifically her partner, who is a farmer in Thessaly, was involved.
The Greek Government said it planned to hold a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate the country’s alleged farm subsidy fraud scandal. https://t.co/xQxEOk51C3
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 16, 2025
Opposition parties all demanded answers and accountability from the government.
PASOK, the Social Democratic Party of Greece asked: “The unusually high amounts of payments of the families of Mrs Semertzidou and her partner through OPEKEPE, which approached €2.5 million – according to a report – have they been audited?”
“Do they trouble them? How do they explain the upward trend of their payments during the years of New Democracy’s government? Do they accept or not their executive’s claim that there is nothing reprehensible?”
“The silence of New Democracy in the face of repeated publications on the issue raises many questions, especially at a time when it has declared the unyielding struggle against those who danced in the centre of the dance floor in the corruption scandal in OPEKEPE,” PASOK added.
SYRIZA, a Socialist party more to the Left, put the blame on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and called for new elections so the the country could be “cleansed of vice, corruption and entanglement”.
“Every day another news – revelation – scandal – resignation,” the party noted.
“The fish stinks from the head. Besides, just a few days ago, New Democracy, with a parliamentary deviation, denied the preliminary investigation committee for possible offences of two of its ministers. Preliminary investigation and elections, Mr Mitsotakis, in order to rid the country of your vice, corruption and entanglement.”
Greek Solution, a right-wing opposition party said: “Now that Semertzidou has resigned, indirectly accepting what is being denounced, the time has come for Mitsotakis and his government to resign, so that the country can calm down.
“Along with their resignation, of course, they must return the stolen money from OPEKEPE and the rest of the scandals”.
Several top officials of the ruling party, including two ministers, have resigned after the alleged subsidy scandal broke.
In the so-called OPEKEPE case, uncovered by EPPO, the Greek administration stood accused of knowingly having participated in the allegedly fraudulent misappropriation of hundreds of millions of euros in European taxpayer funds.
COMMENT: Brussels relentlessly hounded dissident governments like Poland’s Morawiecki or Hungary’s Orbán for rule-of-law breaches, yet Mitsotakis, the EPP’s darling, escapes scrutiny, writes @BogdanosK. https://t.co/KuhREAYDVv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) July 1, 2025
