Gov’t spokesman denies Tempe railway disaster cover-up

A day ahead of a debate and vote on the findings of a parliamentary committee probe into the Tempe train crash, the government spokesman has rejected allegations that there has been a cover-up of the incident, accusing opposition parties of “instrumentalizing the pain of the victims’ relatives.”

In a press briefing, Pavlos Marinakis also confirmed that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will not attend the debate on the findings on the 2023 rail disaster, which claimed the lives of 57 people, most of them young university students returning from a long weekend break.

Marinakis said that the government has “absolute respect for the pain, anger and indignation of the relatives of the victims,” adding that the justice system is continuing the investigation into the disaster, in the best possible way.

“We are waiting for the answers; we want light in a sober and objective way,” he added.

His comments came a day after Maria Karystianou, a mother of one of the victims of the railway collision, told the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions (PETI) that there has been a “cover-up” of the disaster.

“The guarantees of the rule of law no longer function in Greece,” she told MEPs, while presenting a petition signed by 1.3 million people that calls for the lifting of protections enjoyed by ministers and MPs against criminal prosecution.

The investigation into the crash was “taking place in such a way that we are certain the truth will not shine,” Karystianou alleged.

Main opposition SYRIZA party accused the prime minister of “blatantly ignoring the cry of anguish of the relatives of the Tempi victims as well as their complaints about the cover-up of the crime. It is therefore logical that he has chosen to avoid tomorrow’s debate in Parliament.”