Greece's Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis speaks with the media as he arrives for the EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, March 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)
Greece on April 3 staged a government reshuffle after three cabinet members resigned amid a burgeoning EU farm subsidy scandal that has piled pressure on the country's conservative government.
The changes include a former European Commission vice president, Margaritis Schinas, being named the new agriculture minister.
The resignations included the minister of civil protection, a deputy health minister, the secretary of the ruling New Democracy party and its speaker in parliament.
The departures came after the EU's European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) this week announced probes into 20 members of the ruling New Democracy party, including active and former lawmakers.
The suspects have not been formally named, but their names were widely circulated by Greek media.
Greek police last year made dozens of non-political arrests over the scandal.
According to Greek authorities, the network defrauded at least 23 million euros ($27 million) since it started around 2018.
EPPO first detailed the scam last May, accusing subsidy beneficiaries of making claims for land that they did not own and exaggerating the number of animals on farms. Some people receiving payments had no link to agriculture.
Most of the fraudulent subsidies went to the island of Crete, where the family of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been politically influential for over a century.
