The resignation of two senior Greek government officials within four days has intensified scrutiny of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s administration as investigators expand a corruption probe into alleged bribery and influence-peddling within the country’s urban planning system.
George Didaskalou, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Culture, stepped down Thursday, becoming the second high-ranking bureaucrat to leave office since the investigation gathered momentum. His departure follows Monday’s resignation of Efthymios Bakogiannis, Secretary General for Spatial Planning and Urban Environment at the Ministry of Environment and Energy.
The back-to-back resignations have fueled speculation that the scandal could reach further into the government as authorities continue examining an alleged network accused of manipulating building permits and planning approvals in exchange for bribes. Six people have been arrested so far, while local media reports suggest additional officials remain under scrutiny.
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Although neither Didaskalou nor Bakogiannis has been accused of wrongdoing, their departures have become politically significant because of their proximity to institutions at the center of the investigation.
Bakogiannis, who oversaw spatial planning policy, cited personal reasons in his resignation letter, saying he wished to return to academic life after completing a long period of public service. Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis has insisted there is no evidence linking him to corruption allegations.
However, reports that one of those arrested is Bakogiannis’s brother-in-law—a technical adviser in the regional administration of Attica—as well as the latter’s wife, a municipal official, have complicated the government’s effort to portray the resignation as unrelated to the investigation.
Didaskalou’s departure has proven equally awkward for the administration. Since 2019, he had served as the top civil servant at the Ministry of Culture while chairing Greece’s influential Central Archaeological Council and the Central Council for Modern Monuments, bodies that play a decisive role in approving development projects affecting archaeological and protected sites.
Government sources have described his resignation as part of a broader renewal of long-serving officials, arguing that some senior civil servants had simply “completed their cycle.” Yet the explanation has struggled to gain traction as two key figures connected to sectors under investigation exited within days of one another.
The affair poses a fresh political challenge for Mitsotakis, whose government has promoted digital reforms and modernization of public administration as central achievements while pledging to improve transparency and reduce bureaucratic inefficiency.
Opposition parties have seized on the developments to argue that the scandal reflects deeper institutional problems rather than isolated misconduct.
PASOK accused the government of refusing to accept political responsibility, questioning how officials with close family ties to individuals allegedly involved in the network remained in influential positions for years.
The left-wing opposition party SYRIZA went further, arguing that the resignations expose systemic failures throughout the state apparatus and calling for broader investigations into decisions taken by officials who have now left office, particularly in areas involving cultural heritage management and urban development.
The government has so far resisted suggestions that the resignations indicate wider political accountability, but with prosecutors continuing their investigation and reports of additional potential departures circulating in Athens, officials face mounting pressure to demonstrate that the alleged corruption network did not extend beyond local planning authorities.
For now, the departures of Bakogiannis and Didaskalou may represent either isolated attempts to contain political damage or the first signs of a broader reckoning within the Greek administration. The answer is likely to depend on what investigators uncover in the weeks ahead.
