Greece: Greek government survives suspicion vote

The conservative Greek government under Prime Minister Kyriako’s Mitsotakis has survived a vote of no confidence. The opposition had strained this two years ago because of the sluggish clarification of the serious train accident of Tempi. 157 MPs expressed trust in the government. 136 Parliamentarians, on the other hand, voted, as the Parliamentary President announced.

In the room there was accusation that the Mitsotaki government wanted to cover up the causes of the train accident. Two years ago, 57 primarily young people died in the frontal collision of a passenger and a freight train in Middle Greece. The information of the accident is slow – a first official report was only published last week.

On the second anniversary of the accident, hundreds of thousands of outraged citizens had taken to the streets throughout Greece. They asked the government to educate the misfortune and to account for the responsible persons. Tens of thousands demonstrated again on the evening of the vote. In front of the parliament in Athens, there were conflicts between hooded demonstrators and the police.

The parliamentary debate was also partly stormy. “Your responsibility for the (train) accident is criminal,” said the head of the opposition social democrats Nikos Androulakis in the direction of Mitsotakis. The latter accused the opposition to ignore the difficult geopolitical developments in the world and to destabilize the country with the vote of no confidence in order to get power. Mitsotakis assured Greek railway to modernize them by 2027.

Report: Serious investigation errors and grievances

A first investigation report had denounced the dilapidated state of the rail network and showed serious defects in the examination of the accident. Among other things, the scene of the accident was not properly mapped, and there was hardly any coordination of the fire brigade, emergency services and the police.

The victims’ families also suspect that a non -declared, flammable hazardous substance was transported in the freight train. The fabric led to a severe explosion when the trains collided, which would have caused even more deaths than the accident itself. So far, however, there is no official evidence of this assumption.