New Democracy lawmaker and former transport minister Kostas A. Karamanlis announced Saturday that he will not be a candidate in the next general election, after he was named in one of the case files concerning a massive farm subsidies scandal that was sent to Parliament on Friday.
“I place myself at the disposal of the competent authorities along with my fellow MPs, who are allegedly involved in the OPEKEPE case. I am innocent and will prove my innocence wherever I am called upon [to testify],” he said in a statement.
“However, because politics is not an end in itself for me, I declare that I do not intend to be a candidate in the upcoming elections.”
The MP from Serres is among the 11 lawmakers of the ruling party named in an ongoing investigation by European prosecutors into the alleged fraud in the distribution of European Union farm subsidies to political cronies through the now-defunct OPEKEPE state agency.
Pressured by the new revelations, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his cabinet on Friday, replacing all the MPs named in the OPEKEPE files.
Karamanlis said will exhaust his current parliamentary term.
It will be the first time since 1974 that no member of the Karamanlis political dynasty is in the Greek Parliament.