Opposition parties scathing over Mitsotakis’ Tempe stance

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ attempted to “bulldoze not just the truth but reason itself” in his comments on the Tempe railway disaster in a Tuesday morning interview with private broadcaster SKAI, main opposition SYRIZA has charged.

SYRIZA said that the prime minister had presented himself as “a simple observer of events, naively watching the developments regarding the tragedy at Tempe,” which cost the lives of 57 people, mainly university students, in February 2023.

In his interview, Mitsotakis said that the “final word” on Tempe rests with the justice system.

“Political leaders are trying to build a career on the Tempe accident,” he said.

On Monday, the cross-party parliamentary committee investigating the causes of the deadly train collision in Tempe ended its sessions acrimoniously, with each party submitting its own conclusions.

Mitsotakis “said nothing about New Democracy’s report [from the committee], which speaks only of human error, gave no reply to the burning issues that have arisen and are linked to his government’s omissions but also to the effort to cover up a crime,” the party said.

In a scathing attack on Mitsotakis’ interview, PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis accused the prime minister of overlooking the findings of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding the collision and of causing a “degradation of the rule of law in Greece.”

“The day before yesterday, the EU prosecutor’s office clearly linked the crime in Tempe with the implementation of the remote management [safety] project. Its report in the summer outlines the crimes of breach of faith and duty by the New Democracy minister, Mr Karamanlis,” Androulakis said.

Also on Tuesday, four SYRIZA MPs submitted their report on the collision to a Supreme Court prosecutor.

In contrast to the New Democracy MPs’ report, SYRIZA’s conclusion was that the collision was not exclusively the result of human error but identified criminal responsibilities on the part of political figures, among them former infrastructure and transport minister Kostas A. Karamanlis.

The four MPs said they hoped their report will be forwarded to the appeals magistrate now conducting the judicial investigation into the collision. [AMNA]