‘I’m not hiding,’ ex-transport minister says
The government’s former transport minister, Kostas Karamanlis, dismissed accusations that he is shirking responsibility for the February 2023 Tempe railway disaster during a debate in Parliament on a no-confidence motion against the administration over its handling of the deadly crash.
“I have not hidden and I will not hide behind any form of immunity for lawmakers,” Karamanlis told Parliament on Wednesday, a day after the motion was tabled by socialist PASOK and backed by SYRIZA, New Left, communist KKE and nationalist Greek Solution.
The tragedy, he said, lashing out at the opposition parties, “is becoming an object of political exploitation.”
Referring to the fact that the accident occurred during his tenure at the Transport and Infrastructure Ministry, Karamanlis pointed the finger for delays in installing the remote signaling system on Greece’s railway at the previous administration.
On the night of the crash, “many fatal mistakes were made – and this is not just a theory, we have a confession,” he added, in an apparent reference to the Larissa stationmaster who is accused of allowing two trains running in opposite directions on the same track.
“The general regulation of rail traffic, the ‘Bible’ of the railroad, was violated seven times,” the former minister added.
