Greek PM targets ministers' immunity, 'jobs for life' to restore voters' trust

Greece's prime minister proposed on Monday reviewing ministers' legal immunity and guaranteed "jobs for life" for state-sector workers in a bid ‌to restore voters' trust after a graft scandal and to build support ahead of a 2027 national election.

Greece's prime minister proposed on Monday reviewing ministers' legal immunity and guaranteed "jobs for life" for state-sector workers in a bid ‌to restore voters' trust after a graft scandal and to build support ahead of a 2027 national election. Kyriakos Mitsotakis' centre-right government remains ahead in ⁠opinion polls but it has been shaken by a corruption scandal in which some farmers, aided by state employees, faked land ownership to get subsidies. The affair was revealed by EU prosecutors in 2025 ​and parliament is looking into the case.

Greeks were also angered by the government's handling ‍of a 2023 train crash which killed 57 people, the country's worst on record. It triggered the biggest mass protests in Greece since a debilitating decade-long debt crisis. A trial opens next month, with protesters demanding full political accountability. In ⁠Greece, only ‌parliament can investigate ⁠ministers or lift lawmakers' immunity, according to the four-times-revised 1975 constitution.

"The world of 2026 is different and poses new challenges," Mitsotakis ‍said in a letter to his 156 deputies in the 300-seat parliament and in a televised address. "The ​time is ripe for a brave constitutional revision towards a functional democracy." To make public administration ⁠more efficient, Mitsotakis suggested that the lifelong job security enjoyed by state employees for more than a century should be ⁠reviewed, too, to address underperformance.

The constitution also needs to address modern challenges including artificial intelligence, affordable housing, the climate crisis, fiscal stability and a slow judicial system, he said, without proposing any specific ⁠measures. Mitsotakis and his party took power in 2019 and were re-elected in 2023 for another four-year ⁠term.

For the proposed ‌changes to come into effect, two successive parliaments need to approve them and an enhanced majority of 180 deputies is required in at least ⁠one of the two votes.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)