A Greek minister resigned on Thursday following allegations of a cover-up in the Tempi tragedy that claimed the lives of 57 people in 2023.
Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Christos Triandopoulos resigned after a parliamentary investigation into his role was announced, but denied all allegations.
In an announcement made on the floor of parliament on Thursday morning, he said: “I want to clarify that everything that is mentioned, as far as I am concerned, is outside of all reality and logic.”
Main opposition PASOK filed for the establishment of a parliamentary committee to investigate the responsibilities of Triantopoulos in the handling of the Tempi tragedy site on Tuesday. The government endorsed the proposal.
The center-left party alleged that Triantopoulos ordered the landfilling of the Tempi site before a thorough investigation could take place, which could lead to criminal liabilities.
Minister rejects Tempi disaster cover-up
“My presence, with a government team, at the scene of the accident, days after the tragic accident, and the arbitrary speculations about the reasons for it, are now being used for petty political reasons, as evidence of a hypothetical, and in reality non-existent, ‘cover-up’,” the former minister said.
“My presence in the region was known . . . but it is now presented as a certainty that the government and its officials were acting as joint plotters.”
Rejecting accusations of a cover-up he stressed that the presence of the government team at Tempi, was political. “Without interfering with the work of the departmental and operational agents, which had already begun from the first moment of the tragedy.”
Tempi still dominates Greek politics
Last week, tens of thousands of Greeks across the country took to the streets to protest against the government’s delay in concluding who was responsible for the Tempi railway disaster.
For two years, the Association of Relatives of the Victims has demanded justice while accusing the government of attempting to cover up the incident.
Victims’ family members assert that the Tempi railway disaster was not an accident, but a crime committed by the government. They claim that the government acted hastily to cover it up and tampered with evidence, thereby stalling the investigation and failing to address the families’ inquiries.
Mitsotakis attempted to respond to the cover-up accusations by saying that the main responsibility for the continuous delays falls on Hellenic Train, the Police, agency officials, and the judiciary.
As for covering the crash site with cement before the forensic investigation was completed, the prime minister shifted the responsibility to the officials by saying that, “some actions were taken in the field, they were done with good intentions, so that we could locate the bodies at that moment. If something went wrong, an operational error, that will, again, be judged by the authorities. And if the prosecutor, who has already dealt with the issue, considers that he should press charges, he will press them.”
Related: Draft Report on Tempi Train Disaster Sheds Light on Collision, Explosions