Greek PM Mitsotakis Apologizes for Train Tragedy

Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis took to social media on Sunday to apologize for the train tragedy at Tempi that resulted in the deaths of at least 57 people.

Mitsotakis who is facing a general election this spring as prime minister, offered a “great apology” on behalf of his government and on behalf “of all those who have ruled Greece over the years.”

He acknowledged that it is beyond comprehension that two trains travel on the same line and collide in modern Greece.

Mitsotakis: we should not hide behind human error in the train disaster

“We cannot, we do not want and should not hide behind human error. If the digital control system had been completed, this accident would be virtually impossible to have happened. The fact that will be fully operating in the coming months is no excuse. The opposite.

“It makes my pain even bigger that we didn’t get it done before the tragedy happened,” Mitsotakis wrote on Facebook.

The Greek PM vowed that Justice will quickly investigate the tragedy and those responsible. At the same time, he said he will immediately ask the European Commission and member states for their contribution in know-how in order to create a modern railway system.

Mitsotakis said he intends to propose to all the parties to make a commitment that a Special Committee will be set up by the next Parliament that will investigate all that has happened in the Greek railways in the last 20 years, so that the country can finally do all the things that need to be done, and quickly.

Train disaster demonstrates what’s wrong with Greece

Mitsotakis said that the train disaster demonstrates what is wrong with Greece.

“We all know that the railroads of the country are deeply problematic. They are perhaps the extreme expression of a Greece that does not become us and which we want to leave behind. I know that many people will remember the phrase of one of my predecessors that ‘this is Greece’. But no, it is not only this. There is another Greece out there that gives us hope, faith and strength,” Mitsotakis said.

He mentioned the firefighters, the rescuers, the doctors and the hospital staff, the police and the forensic experts who have completed the painful mission of identifying the dead through DNA tests.

“The face of the more hopeful Greece was also seen in the passengers who risked their lives to save others. In the Greeks who rushed to donate blood. But also in the young children who marched silently and peacefully, holding a candle for the victims,” Mitsotakis said.

“Personally, I am in politics to change this ‘bad country’, this old Greece that hurts us. This is my effort every day. Sometimes I succeed and other times I do not. I know well, however, how much better we can make our country if we sweep away the remnants of the past that hold us back. This is the Greece we deserve and for which I will continue to fight,” the prime minister concluded.