Government hard put to manage crash fallout
Last Tuesday’s deadly rail crash was a major test for the government’s crisis management capabilities, even though it has spent most of its nearly four years in power responding to such crises, from the coronavirus pandemic to major wildfires.
Although medical responders and police were on the scene, near the Vale of Tempe, about 15 minutes after the accident, its dimensions only unfolded slowly: two hours later, at 1.20 a.m. on Wednesday, the Civil Protection Ministry had informed Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis that there were seven dead; almost a couple of hours would pass before it became clear that casualties would be in the dozens.
As this was not the case of preventing, or mitigating, a disaster – the station master’s actions had been made highly probable by decades of failed state policies – communicating the government’s response became a main concern. Elections are coming up in the spring and opposition parties would try their best to see the fallout hit the present government above all.
One key element in the government’s response – the setting up of an independent experts commission to produce a report without delay, and preferably before the election – was panned because one of the three members of the commission, Thanasis Ziliaskopoulos, was chairman of the board and CEO of train operator TrainOSE from 2010-2015.
Ziliaskopoulos, the chairman of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund, which manages privatizations, announced Saturday he would not accept the appointment.
