PM Mitsotakis: Our political opponents used the Tempi tragedy to strike at the government

The tragedy of the Tempi train collision is a much greater issue than an opportunity for parties to table a motion of censure against the government, but the opposition parties used it anyway “to turn society’s pain into a tool to strike at the government and me personally,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday night in parliament.

Wrapping up the debate before a vote on a motion of censure tabled jointly by four parties criticizing the government for its handling of the Tempi crash, Mitsotakis said that it was in justice’s power to show who was responsible.

“I understand that I am standing before and addressing a society that is suspicious and angry. I take it upon myself to tell the truth,” he said, before attacking the criticism of the four parties signing the motion of censure (PASOK-KINAL, SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance, Nea Aristera and Plefsi Eleftherias).

Claims of cover-ups

Addressing the controversy of media reports which claimed that phone conversations pertaining to the fatal train collision were tampered with, Mitsotakis said “all conversations were at the disposal of authorities from the very start.”

The accusation that the stationmaster served as a scapegoat for the accident is a distortion, he said, noting: “My question is this – this man is detained by decision of a judge, because there is no question he carried out 7 violations of the safety code, and it was a human hand that sent the train to the wrong rail. Is there a single person in this room who believes that if the stationmaster had carried out his job properly, this accident would have still happened? Why then do you doubt something that justice itself has ruled it has quite possibly happened?”

Mitsotakis also denied the government had given an order to cover up part of the accident site with mounds of earth, calling these reports ‘despicable’ and saying that “what the crews cared about was to lift the carriages so they could find the people trapped below.”

He also rejected accusations that justice is dragging its feet, since trials in Greece “have never moved fast.” He added that “34 people have been charged. We have lifted confidentiality in cases of accidents. I requested we table this regulation immediately. You voted against it.”

The Greek PM also spoke extensively about the SYRIZA government’s failure to carry out properly Agreement 717 on train signalling, which “if it had been completed, the accident would not have occurred.” He named former transportation minister Christos Spirtzis for breaking up the agreement into segments, and then doing the same for the Patras-Pyrgos highway that had to be restarted after inactivity over 5 years. “Does this mean that Mr. Spirtzis is criminally responsible for manslaughter for those who lost their lives? The answer is no,” Mitsotakis said. Improvements in the train situation are happening, but the pace is slow, he said.

Prelim investigating committee

On the issue of setting up a preliminary investigation committee, “you document the crime, then we talk.” And he noted that when he was a newly elected deputy in 2007, he had tabled a proposal to change the statute of limitations, and it had been extended to 20 years. “We did that, not you,” he said of New Democracy.

Mitsotakis accused the parties of colluding on newspaper reports, which he said were old news recycled, and told the opposition, “All this we see serves a single purpose: to pull Mitsotakis down. There is no doubt that with the recent popular vote, by your behavior, your extreme actions, you are the ones prevent justice from doing its job,” the Greek PM said.

Turning to PASOK-KINAL leader Nikos Androulakis, he said he was changing his party into a green SYRIZA. “You will achieve the inimitable: to trail behind the party of Mr. Kasselakis, in third place.”