Given the shameful developments in Greek domestic politics in recent years, it looks as if European democracy was shot in the heart right there where it was born almost three thousands years ago: in Athens.
The use of the term ’shameful’ which takes on negative connotations is justified given that domestic politics in Greece – a state with a unique history and political culture -, have been marked by a series of scandals which, despite the fact that have strongly shaken not only the public discourse but also the political parties and the government, have so far not led to a government change in the country. The situation in Athens eerily resembles that of the bureaucratic centre of the European Union, with the impression that developments in Greece can also be seen as a forecast for Brussels. Given the achievements and the legacy of the world-famous Athenian democracy, modern-day Athens can be called a political lab for the EU today: in this respect, a painful domestic issue in Greece is also a problem at EU level but, obviously, it appears to be a bigger and more painful one. If democracy in Greece is eroding, a similar trend is likely to follow at EU level – that is why it is important to point out that the massive explosions from the EU’s small but ancient Greek backroom is not good news for the EU as a whole.
As an introductory note it should be stressed that the scope of the political scandals in Greece is so broad that it is worth highlighting just some of them, or else, we would need to publish a book with a truly substantial content instead of writing a more focused situation report presenting the state of democracy on South Europe’s ancient land.
The scandals that have rocked Greece in recent years include illegal political party funding, fraudulent use of EU subsidies, observing political opponents with a smartphone spyware and misuse of EU farm subsidies. A deadly train accident in the country in 2023 was another example of how badly the government handled the country’s ever biggest tragedy. And last but not least, the fact that one of the main players of ’Qatargate’ – the EU Parliament’s ever biggest corruption scandal which rocked the bloc in 2022 – is Greek MEP and former European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili. (This is a non-exhaustive list.)
There is little debate among experts that Greek democracy suffered one of its most serious attacks in 2022, when the government was reported to have used the ’Predator’ spyware on the phones of political opponents, businessmen and journalists, a total of 33 people. However, Greek society was less shaken by this case than it was after the country’s deadliest train disaster, the Tempi train crash, killing nearly 60 people and injuring almost 200: following this tragedy, mass protests started across Greece against the government, which, at that time turned to Brussels for support to modernise the country’s rail network while a ’big sorry’ was all it could say to the families of the victims. It should be mentioned here that, after the disaster, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched an investigation into a contract for the upgrade of the signaling system and remote control on the Greek railway.
As for the EPPO, it needs to be noted that Greece has kept its experts very busy in recent years with other cases as well. In fact, EPPO investigated dozens of cases, in which Greek citizens received EU agricultural subsidies from 2017 for pastureland they did not own or had not leased, or for agricultural work they never did, depriving farmers of money to which they were entitled.
As a result of a multi-year investigation, Brussels has imposed a massive fine on Athens in June 2025, after finding systemic failings in Greece’s management in farm subsidies from 2016 to 2023. Following the decision of the European Commission, Greece will pay a fine of nearly €400 million for mismanaging EU farm funding and inadequate controls. According to expectations, Greece was to receive some €1.9 billion in direct payments from the EU next year, but around a quarter of that will now be cut, due to the fine.
In addition to the fines received from the Commission, this May proved to be a particularly painful month for Greeks, with a party financing scandal and a rather bizarre story concerning DNA samples that have dominated the public discourse.
According to media sources, in May 2025, links between a PR company and the New Democracy party of PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis have been exposed. Following the scandal, opposition parties in Greece demanded an investigation into the government’s ties to this company that they link to shadow financing and online propaganda for the New Democracy.
If this is not enough, another scandal broke out in May. It was revealed that the Greek health ministry signed a secretive deal that allowed two private companies (RealGenix – the Greek subsidiary of the American company Plumcare, and Beginnings) access to the DNA of 100,000 newborns by 2029 through genome sequencing. As it was revealed, the agreement with the companies was signed without public debate, scientific consensus, or approval from national bioethics bodies or relevant state authorities. It also lacks specific safeguards as to personal data and parents’ consent.
And what was the reaction of the trustees of the Athenian democracy to all these scandals?
Strangely enough, all these political scandals have left the government untouched, for the simple reason that the level of politics in Greece has dropped so low that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party is far not the worst players in Greek politics. Add to this that, despite all scandals, the New Democracy is still atop the party standings. This situation is deeply saddening because we are talking about the birthplace of democracy, not to mention other factual political considerations such as the surge of the far-right which is fully in line with the trends in Europe.
From the perspective of the Greek people the situation might look like this: they seem to be strongly disillusioned with the local politicians, regardless of which party they belong to: centre-right, far right or left. In fact, this frustration may be the real reason why the government of Mitsotakis is still in power, despite the fact that it has long deserved to step down.
When looking at the political spectrum in Greece, Greeks are facing the sad fact that there is no suitable alternative left: politicians of all sides are reported to be corrupt and scandals are associated with all political parties. In this situation, the distinction between good and bad no longer exists. For instance, once PM Mitsotakis steps down, one of his main challengers, according to Greek media, would be health minister Adonis Georgiadis from the ultra-nationalist Laos party – the minister who signed the abovementioned secretive agreement with private companies on the access to the DNA of Greek newborns…
There seems to be no way out of this hopeless situation for the time being, though, a remark should be added to this, namely, that the only winner in these times of deteriorating democracy in Greece – besides New Democracy, of course -, is the far right which continues to be on the upsurge, though its support is still far behind that of the New Democracy. (In last year’s EP election, one in five Greeks voted for one of the country’s far-right parties.)
Some see a possible alternative in the former left-wing PM Alexis Tsipras and his party Syriza, regardless the fact that socialist Pasok is the main opposition party in Greece. As a result of the fragmented left, Syriza and Pasok are both being challenged by the ultra-nationalist Greek Solution and the populist Course of Freedom. In trying to find a viable solution, some leftist politicians have called for the creation of a grand coalition that could compete on equal terms with New Democracy.
At this point, it is worth noting that there is no adequate response to the surge of the far right across Europe, so, why the situation in Greece would be else…?
Concluding, the series of scandals and the erosion of democracy in Greece can be assessed as a precise indicator concerning the state of democracy in the European Union. The situation in Greece gives cause for concern, given that a democratic deficit in the homeland of democracy does not bode well for the EU as a whole, moreover, social disillusionment in Greece, triggered by the lack of hope in Greek politics, can easily spill over to the entire bloc and lead to an EU-wide crisis. With this in mind, it makes sense for EU leaders to monitor the situation in Greece.
The word ’democracy’ combines the elements ’demos’ (people) and ’kratos’ (power), and thus means literally ’people power’, as we all know from our early school years. With this short ethimology reminder, when finishing our situation report, the question should be raised: what happened to our prescious democracy? Where have the people and their political will and power gone from democracy?
