The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chaired the meeting of the Council of Ministers.
Prime Minister apologized once again to the citizens for the train collision in Tempi.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis made it clear, in fact, that he is not interested in a sterile political confrontation using the phrase “we are all to blame, and first of all we as the government”.
The basic points of the Kyriakos Mitsotakis were:
Our meeting today is being held in the shadow of the tragedy of the Tempi and the national pain.
Our thoughts are above all with the families of the victims.
I repeat the public apology personally.
I take personal responsibility, we should not hide behind a series of human errors.
If the remote control project had been completed, this accident would practically have been impossible to happen.
The fact that this digital control system will be operational a few months from now is no excuse. It also makes my personal pain greater as we didn’t get to install it before the damage was done.
The last thing I want is to get into a sterile confrontation about who is to blame. We are all to blame and first of all we as the government.
The sharing of responsibilities will be done by justice quickly and to the highest degree.
I can guarantee complete transparency in the investigation to identify the errors.
Listening to the dialogues I felt anger and shame. However, I have an obligation to turn emotions into creative action, and this is what I promised to the mother of the deceased train driver Spyros Voulgaris.
With priority given to the financial and moral support of the victims, there will be relevant announcements in the next period.
Mr. Mitsotakis and Mr. Gerapetritis heard yesterday the first ideas of the European task force that came to Athens on behalf of the Commission to upgrade the safety of the country’s railway network, while the Prime Minister had a similar discussion in search of know-how with the German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
