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17 min
foodpoliticseconomicseuropean affairsagriculture
El dinero de los campos: corrupción, comida y el gran pacto europeo
The Money in the Fields: Corruption, Food, and Europe's Great Bargain
Fletcher breaks down this story in English. Octavio reacts and expands in Spanish. Follow along with the live transcript, tap any word for its translation. Advanced level — perfect for advanced learners pushing toward fluency.
So, buried under all the missiles and downed jets this week, there was a story out of Athens that I think deserves a lot more attention than it got.
Bueno, sí.
Right, yes.
Mitsotakis tuvo que remodelar su gabinete porque varios de sus ministros están siendo investigados por la Fiscalía Europea.
Mitsotakis had to reshuffle his cabinet because several of his ministers are under investigation by the European Public Prosecutor.
Y el motivo no es algo abstracto: es dinero de los agricultores.
And the reason isn't something abstract: it's farmers' money.
Specifically, subsidies.
EU farm subsidies.
The allegation is that officials were handing out money from the Common Agricultural Policy in ways that were, let's say, not entirely above board.
Mira, la palabra que usa la Fiscalía Europea es "irregularidades", que es una palabra muy elegante para decir que presuntamente se asignaron fondos a personas que no debían recibirlos, o en cantidades que no estaban justificadas.
Look, the word the European Prosecutor uses is 'irregularities', which is a very elegant word for saying that funds were allegedly allocated to people who shouldn't have received them, or in amounts that weren't justified.
Right, so before we get into the Greek politics, I want to make sure listeners understand what the CAP actually is, because this is the mechanism at the center of all of it.
A ver, la Política Agrícola Común, la PAC, es básicamente el programa más caro de la Unión Europea.
Well, the Common Agricultural Policy, the CAP, is basically the most expensive program of the European Union.
Consume alrededor del treinta y dos por ciento del presupuesto total de la UE.
It consumes around thirty-two percent of the EU's total budget.
Estamos hablando de casi sesenta mil millones de euros al año que van directamente a los agricultores europeos.
We're talking about almost sixty billion euros a year going directly to European farmers.
Sixty billion euros.
And here's what gets me: that's a figure most people have never heard, even though it shapes the price of almost everything they eat.
Es que la PAC no nació como un programa burocrático.
The thing is, the CAP wasn't born as a bureaucratic program.
Nació del miedo.
It was born from fear.
Después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Europa había pasado hambre de verdad, hambre literal.
After the Second World War, Europe had known real hunger, literal hunger.
Los padres fundadores de la integración europea querían garantizar que eso nunca volviera a ocurrir.
The founding fathers of European integration wanted to guarantee that would never happen again.
The Dutch Hunger Winter.
The famine in Greece itself during the Nazi occupation.
These weren't distant memories in 1957 when the Treaty of Rome was signed, they were recent trauma.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y Grecia, precisamente, perdió entre cien mil y trescientas mil personas por hambre entre 1941 y 1944.
And Greece, precisely, lost between one hundred thousand and three hundred thousand people to hunger between 1941 and 1944.
Así que hay una ironía muy amarga en que sea Grecia el país donde ahora hay un escándalo con el dinero que se creó para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria.
So there's a very bitter irony in Greece being the country where there's now a scandal involving money that was created to guarantee food security.
That's a point worth sitting with.
The mechanism designed to prevent famine becomes a mechanism that some officials allegedly use to enrich themselves or their allies.
That's a particular kind of corruption.
Bueno, y para entender cómo funciona el fraude en la PAC hay que entender cómo funciona la PAC en general.
Well, and to understand how the fraud in the CAP works you have to understand how the CAP works in general.
Los subsidios se pagan principalmente por hectáreas.
Subsidies are paid mainly per hectare.
Si tienes tierras, recibes dinero.
If you have land, you get money.
Eso ya de por sí crea un sistema que favorece a los grandes propietarios.
That already creates a system that favors large landowners.
So the bigger your farm, the more you collect.
Which means the policy that was supposed to protect small family farmers ends up disproportionately benefiting large agricultural operations and, in some cases, landowners who don't farm at all.
La verdad es que eso ya es un problema estructural conocido.
Truth is, that's already a known structural problem.
Pero lo que investiga la Fiscalía Europea en este caso griego es algo más directo: la asignación de fondos a través de un organismo llamado OPEKEPE, que es la agencia griega de pagos agrícolas, con criterios que presuntamente no eran los correctos.
But what the European Prosecutor is investigating in this Greek case is something more direct: the allocation of funds through a body called OPEKEPE, the Greek agricultural payment agency, using criteria that were allegedly not the correct ones.
And Mitsotakis, to his credit I suppose, moved fast.
He didn't wait for charges, he reshuffled.
Which tells you he read the political temperature correctly.
Sí, pero también hay que decir que Mitsotakis lleva años intentando proyectar una imagen de Grecia como un país moderno, reformado, que ha superado los escándalos de corrupción de los años de la crisis.
Yes, but we also have to say that Mitsotakis has spent years trying to project an image of Greece as a modern, reformed country that has moved past the corruption scandals of the crisis years.
Este caso es un golpe a esa narrativa.
This case is a blow to that narrative.
I spent some time in Athens during the bailout years, 2011, 2012.
The rage there was extraordinary.
People felt the austerity measures were imposed on ordinary citizens while the people who caused the crisis, the political class, the connected families, walked away.
Y mira, ese resentimiento nunca desapareció del todo.
And look, that resentment never entirely went away.
Grecia salió técnicamente de la crisis económica, pero la desconfianza en las instituciones se quedó.
Greece technically came out of the economic crisis, but the distrust in institutions stayed.
Un escándalo de subsidios agrícolas puede parecer pequeño comparado con el colapso del sistema bancario, pero activa exactamente los mismos mecanismos de indignación.
A farm subsidy scandal can seem small compared to the collapse of the banking system, but it activates exactly the same mechanisms of indignation.
Let's talk about Spain for a moment, because you can't discuss the CAP without discussing Spain.
Spain is one of the largest recipients of CAP funds in the entire EU.
España recibe alrededor de ocho mil millones de euros al año de la PAC.
Spain receives around eight billion euros a year from the CAP.
Es el segundo receptor más grande después de Francia.
It's the second largest recipient after France.
Y eso no es un accidente: España tiene una superficie agrícola enorme, es el mayor productor de aceite de oliva del mundo, y tiene una industria vinícola que depende en parte de esos fondos.
And that's not an accident: Spain has an enormous agricultural surface area, it's the world's largest producer of olive oil, and it has a wine industry that partially depends on those funds.
The extraordinary thing is that without the CAP, a bottle of Spanish olive oil would probably cost twice as much in a European supermarket.
The subsidy is essentially baked into the price tag, invisible to the consumer.
Bueno, ahí hay que matizar.
Well, we need to be more precise about that.
El precio del aceite de oliva también depende de las cosechas, del clima, de la demanda internacional.
The price of olive oil also depends on harvests, climate, international demand.
En los últimos dos años el precio se ha disparado principalmente porque las sequías en Andalucía y Jaén destrozaron la cosecha.
In the last two years the price has shot up mainly because droughts in Andalusia and Jaén destroyed the harvest.
Eso la PAC no lo puede arreglar.
The CAP can't fix that.
Which raises something I find genuinely interesting.
The CAP was designed for a world where the main threat to food security was not enough production.
But now the main threat is climate.
Drought, floods, unpredictable seasons.
Does the CAP even address that?
A ver, la última reforma de la PAC, la de 2023, intentó incorporar objetivos medioambientales.
Well, the last CAP reform, in 2023, tried to incorporate environmental objectives.
Se llaman los "eco-esquemas": los agricultores reciben más dinero si adoptan prácticas sostenibles.
They're called 'eco-schemes': farmers receive more money if they adopt sustainable practices.
En teoría es un paso adelante.
In theory it's a step forward.
En la práctica, muchos agricultores dicen que los requisitos son demasiado complicados y el dinero adicional no compensa el esfuerzo.
In practice, many farmers say the requirements are too complicated and the extra money doesn't compensate for the effort.
And we saw the blowback from farmers all across Europe last year.
Tractors blocking roads in Brussels, in Madrid, in Berlin.
That was partly about this, about feeling like the environmental rules were strangling them.
Es que las protestas de los agricultores en Europa tienen una larga historia.
The thing is, farmer protests in Europe have a long history.
Pero lo que fue diferente en 2024 y 2025 fue la escala y la coordinación.
But what was different in 2024 and 2025 was the scale and the coordination.
Agricultores franceses, españoles, alemanes, polacos protestando al mismo tiempo.
French, Spanish, German, Polish farmers protesting at the same time.
Y consiguieron que la Comisión Europea diera marcha atrás en varias propuestas del Pacto Verde.
And they managed to get the European Commission to reverse course on several Green Deal proposals.
So you have this tension: the EU wants to make farming more sustainable, the farmers say they can't afford to, and meanwhile the subsidy mechanism itself is apparently being gamed in places like Greece.
It's a system under pressure from every direction.
Y hay una tensión específica que me parece fundamental: la PAC favorece históricamente a los grandes propietarios, pero políticamente se justifica apelando al pequeño agricultor, al hombre o la mujer que cultiva su parcela de tomates en Extremadura o de olivos en Creta.
And there's a specific tension that I find fundamental: the CAP historically favors large landowners, but politically it's justified by appealing to the small farmer, the man or woman who cultivates their plot of tomatoes in Extremadura or olive trees in Crete.
Ese agricultor existe, pero no es quien más se beneficia del sistema.
That farmer exists, but they're not the one who benefits most from the system.
I've reported from enough rural communities, in Spain, in France, in the American Midwest for that matter, to know that the family farm as a cultural symbol and the family farm as an economic reality are very different things.
The symbol is powerful.
The reality is that most of those families are one bad harvest away from selling.
La verdad es que en España la situación es bastante dramática.
The truth is that in Spain the situation is quite dramatic.
El número de explotaciones agrarias pequeñas lleva décadas cayendo.
The number of small farms has been falling for decades.
Los jóvenes no quieren quedarse en el campo porque el trabajo es duro, el ingreso es incierto, y la vida rural en muchas zonas de España se ha vaciado.
Young people don't want to stay in the countryside because the work is hard, the income is uncertain, and rural life in many areas of Spain has emptied out.
Hay pueblos en Castilla con menos de cincuenta habitantes.
There are villages in Castile with fewer than fifty inhabitants.
La España vaciada.
The emptied Spain.
I've read about this.
It's become a whole political movement.
Sí, y tiene representación parlamentaria.
Yes, and it has parliamentary representation.
Hay un partido llamado precisamente Teruel Existe que nació de ese movimiento.
There's a party called precisely Teruel Existe that was born from that movement.
Es un fenómeno que mezcla reivindicación rural, identidad territorial, y una crítica muy legítima a cómo las políticas europeas y nacionales han abandonado el interior del país.
It's a phenomenon that mixes rural claim-making, territorial identity, and a very legitimate critique of how European and national policies have abandoned the interior of the country.
Look, I want to come back to Greece and the food angle specifically, because I think there's something worth exploring about what Greek agriculture actually looks like, what's being subsidized here.
Bueno, Grecia es un país con una tradición agrícola antiquísima.
Well, Greece is a country with an extremely ancient agricultural tradition.
El aceite de oliva, las aceitunas, el algodón, los melocotones, el tabaco históricamente.
Olive oil, olives, cotton, peaches, tobacco historically.
El sector agrícola representa alrededor del cuatro por ciento del PIB griego, que no suena a mucho, pero en términos de empleo rural y de identidad cultural es muchísimo más significativo.
The agricultural sector represents around four percent of Greek GDP, which doesn't sound like much, but in terms of rural employment and cultural identity it's much more significant.
And Greek olive oil is genuinely extraordinary.
I was in Crete once, a long time ago, and I remember eating breakfast at a small place where they put a bowl of local olive oil on the table instead of butter.
It was a completely different product from what you find in a supermarket.
Es que Grecia produce aceite de oliva de una calidad excepcional, pero históricamente ha tenido un problema enorme de marketing.
The thing is, Greece produces olive oil of exceptional quality, but historically it's had an enormous marketing problem.
Mucho del aceite de oliva virgen extra griego se vendía a granel a Italia, que luego lo embotellaba y lo vendía con etiqueta italiana a un precio mucho mayor.
Much of Greece's extra virgin olive oil was sold in bulk to Italy, which then bottled it and sold it with an Italian label at a much higher price.
Los italianos ganaban dinero con el trabajo de los griegos.
The Italians were making money from the Greeks' work.
No, you're absolutely right about that, and it's a pattern you see in agriculture all over the world.
The country that produces often captures very little of the final value.
The country that processes, brands, and markets captures most of it.
Y eso es algo que la PAC en teoría debería ayudar a corregir, financiando no solo la producción sino también la transformación y la comercialización.
And that's something the CAP should in theory help correct, by financing not only production but also processing and marketing.
Pero en la práctica los fondos van mayoritariamente a la producción directa, no a construir las cadenas de valor que permitirían a un agricultor griego vender su aceite al precio que merece.
But in practice the funds go mainly to direct production, not to building the value chains that would allow a Greek farmer to sell their oil at the price it deserves.
So the scandal in Greece isn't just about money being misallocated.
It's also a symptom of a deeper dysfunction in a policy that was supposed to transform European agriculture and in many ways hasn't.
Mira, yo creo que hay que distinguir dos cosas.
Look, I think we need to distinguish two things.
La PAC como concepto, la idea de que Europa debe garantizar su seguridad alimentaria y proteger a sus agricultores, eso sigue siendo válido y necesario, especialmente en un mundo con guerras que interrumpen cadenas de suministro.
The CAP as a concept, the idea that Europe must guarantee its food security and protect its farmers, that remains valid and necessary, especially in a world with wars that disrupt supply chains.
La PAC como mecanismo de distribución, eso es lo que necesita una reforma profunda.
The CAP as a distribution mechanism, that's what needs deep reform.
And the war happening right now is a perfect example of that.
The Strait of Hormuz crisis, the disruptions to shipping, the oil price spike.
All of that affects food prices in Europe.
The supply chain vulnerability the CAP was supposed to address is more visible right now than it's been in decades.
La verdad es que si a alguien le quedaba alguna duda sobre por qué la soberanía alimentaria importa, los últimos años deberían haberla disipado.
The truth is that if anyone still had doubts about why food sovereignty matters, the last few years should have dispelled them.
Primero la pandemia, luego la guerra en Ucrania que disparó el precio del trigo, ahora la guerra en el Golfo que encarece el transporte y los fertilizantes.
First the pandemic, then the war in Ukraine that sent wheat prices soaring, now the war in the Gulf making transport and fertilizers more expensive.
Europa necesita poder alimentarse a sí misma.
Europe needs to be able to feed itself.
So the Greek scandal lands in this very specific moment when the argument for European agricultural self-sufficiency has never been stronger, but the mechanism for achieving it is being shown to be corruptible.
It's a genuinely difficult position for people who believe in the project.
Es que la corrupción en los fondos europeos no es nueva.
The thing is, corruption in European funds isn't new.
Ha habido escándalos en Italia, en Bulgaria, en Hungría, en Rumanía.
There have been scandals in Italy, in Bulgaria, in Hungary, in Romania.
La diferencia ahora es que la Fiscalía Europea existe desde 2021 y tiene poder real para investigar y procesar.
The difference now is that the European Public Prosecutor's Office has existed since 2021 and has real power to investigate and prosecute.
Eso es genuinamente nuevo, y el caso griego es una prueba de que funciona.
That's genuinely new, and the Greek case is proof that it works.
That's actually an optimistic read, and I think it's the right one.
The fact that this is being investigated and that a prime minister felt he had to act is a sign that the accountability mechanisms are starting to have teeth.
Bueno, sí, pero seamos honestos: Mitsotakis también hizo el cálculo político.
Well, yes, but let's be honest: Mitsotakis also did the political calculation.
No actuó porque sea un cruzado anticorrupción.
He didn't act because he's a crusader against corruption.
Actuó porque los titulares eran malos y las elecciones locales en Grecia están a la vuelta de la esquina.
He acted because the headlines were bad and local elections in Greece are just around the corner.
La virtud y el interés propio a veces apuntan en la misma dirección.
Virtue and self-interest sometimes point in the same direction.
I've interviewed enough politicians to know that's almost always how it works.
The question isn't whether the motivation is pure.
The question is whether the outcome is better than the alternative.
And here, the alternative was doing nothing.
A ver, lo que me quedo de todo esto es lo siguiente: la próxima vez que alguien coja una botella de aceite de oliva griego en un supermercado de Madrid o de París, detrás de ese precio hay décadas de política europea, de subsidios, de debates sobre soberanía alimentaria, y ahora también de un escándalo que ha costado varios ministros sus cargos.
Look, what I take from all of this is the following: the next time someone picks up a bottle of Greek olive oil in a supermarket in Madrid or Paris, behind that price there are decades of European policy, of subsidies, of debates about food sovereignty, and now also a scandal that has cost several ministers their positions.
La comida nunca es solo comida.
Food is never just food.
Food is never just food.
That might be the best sentence ever uttered on this podcast.
And on that note, we should probably let people go eat something, preferably with good olive oil, origin unspecified.
No, no, espera: el origen nunca debe ser no especificado.
No, no, wait: the origin should never be unspecified.
El origen importa.
Origin matters.
Eso es exactamente lo que hemos estado diciendo durante cuarenta minutos, Fletcher.
That's exactly what we've been saying for forty minutes, Fletcher.