PASOK slams government over 'epidemic' of secretary-general resignations amid urban planning corruption scandal

Greece's main opposition party, PASOK, launched a sharp attack on the government on 11 June 2026, describing a series of senior resignations as an 'epidemic' and accusing the administration of failing to take political responsibility for a widening corruption scandal in the country's urban planning authorities.

The resignations

The latest departure is that of Giorgos Didaskalou, who stepped down from his post as secretary-general at the Ministry of Culture. Didaskalou, a civil engineer, resigned against the backdrop of the urban planning scandal, in which six arrests have already been made. His resignation follows that of Efthymios Bakogiannis, the secretary-general for Spatial Planning and Urban Environment at the Ministry of Environment, who left his position a few days earlier.

PASOK's response

PASOK press spokesperson Kostas Tsoukalas issued a statement accusing government sources of justifying the resignations with the argument that the officials had 'completed their cycle.' Tsoukalas rejected that framing.

No assumption of political responsibility. Nobody is at fault, nothing happened.

Tsoukalas pointed specifically to the fact that for seven years the government retained a secretary-general responsible for urban planning whose relatives are reportedly under investigation for setting up a network of extortion and bribery in the urban planning offices.

Political money claims

The opposition party escalated its rhetoric by linking the resignations to a broader issue of public fund management. Tsoukalas argued that the government promotes the digitisation of the land registry and administrative reform while tolerating the squandering of public money.

The government that 'sells' the digitisation of the land registry and administrative reform but tolerates the squandering of public money is heavily exposed.

He added that instead of reforms, a 'factory for producing political money' had been created.

Androulakis weighs in

PASOK president Nikos Androulakis also commented on the situation during a speech at the OT Forum, using similarly sharp language. He questioned whether Prime Minister Mitsotakis or government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis would respond to the revelations.

Within a few hours, we have an epidemic of resignations of New Democracy secretary-generals? After the revelation of a new scandal concerning the urban planning offices. Will Mr Mitsotakis answer? Will Mr Marinakis answer? What do they have and are resigning one after the other?

Androulakis spoke about the rule of law and denounced what he described as scandals, cover-ups and impunity.

Government position

Government sources, cited by multiple outlets, maintained that some secretary-generals who had remained in the same position for many years were deemed by the political leadership to have 'completed their cycle' and were asked to resign for that reason. The government has not publicly linked the resignations to the corruption investigation.