SYRIZA to join main opposition PASOK in censure motion over Tempe
Left-wing opposition SYRIZA leader Sokratis Famellos on Thursday called for a joint no-confidence motion against the government, shortly after the release of an official report on the 2023 Tempe rail disaster.
Famellos welcomed a statement by Nikos Androulakis, leader of the main opposition socialist PASOK party, that a no-confidence motion would be tabled “next week”.
Androulakis said his party would table the no-confidence motion next Wednesday and called on all opposition parties to support the initiative.
Earlier on Thursday, a long-awaited report by the National Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Authority (EODASAAM) on the deadly disaster was released, noting that vital information was lost due to the improper handling of the Tempe accident site, where a passenger train and a freight train collided head-on on the night of February 28, 2023, killing 57 passengers and crew and seriously injuring 88 people.
The decision to move the crashed cars and other debris from the site to a secondary location is believed to have contributed to the loss of critical information.
In addition, the hardcore placed over the debris may have extinguished traces of liquids and materials that contributed to a post-collision explosion. The explosion is believed to have killed some of the victims who initially survived the crash.
Mass rallies and strikes are planned for Friday, the second anniversary of the tragedy.
“We can now proceed with a motion of no confidence, supported by a new message from the citizens after tomorrow’s rallies,” Famellos said.
The SYRIZA leader called for the “investigation to be widened” to examine “all the crimes and all those involved” and to “expose the instigator of the filling in of the [crash site], no matter how high he may be.
Famellos also said that the main responsibility of the opposition is to make Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “come forward to answer” and “take responsibility in Parliament”, accusing him of “hiding” for the last “30 days”. He stressed the need for “all parties to demand that the discussion take place, even next week, so that we leave him no room to escape”.
Kathimerini
