Lefkada MP Athanasios Kavvadas has been appointed deputy agriculture minister following the resignation of Makarios Lazaridis, the government said Monday.

Kavvadas, a low-profile lawmaker, was born on the Ionian island of Lefkada in 1962 and entered the Hellenic Air Force Technical Warrant Officers School in 1981. He later earned a master’s degree in Philosophy and Management from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in 2020.

He was first elected to Parliament in September 2015, representing the Lefkada constituency, and was re-elected in July 2019 and again in both the May and June 2023 national elections.

Lazaridis resigned on Saturday, saying he was stepping down to avoid distracting the New Democracy administration from its work amid an ongoing dispute over his academic qualifications.

He had been appointed earlier this month in a limited cabinet reshuffle that replaced ministers who stepped down after their names appeared in a new case file linked to a widening farm subsidies scandal.

Source: Ekathimerini.com