Greece’s PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his conservative government are facing a no-confidence vote in Parliament over the Tempi disaster as opposition parties have united to draft and submit the motion.
The motion, expected to be submitted today in parliament, follows mass protests across Greece on Friday, where demonstrators expressed outrage over what they see as the government’s continued mishandling of the Tempi railway collision and the slow delivery of justice in its aftermath.
Following consultations, PASOK, SYRIZA, Nea Aristera (New Left) and Plefsi Eleftherias (Course of Freedom) signed a 16-page agreement outlining the government’s responsibility, mistakes, and omissions.
The process began on Wednesday with a scheduled pre-agenda debate on Tempi in Parliament. After the debate, as agreed late Tuesday night among the opposition parties, the no-confidence motion will be officially submitted.
Once submitted, Parliament will dedicate the next three days to the no-confidence proceedings, suspending all other voting.
Motion of no-confidence against Mitsotakis on Tempi a “public demand”
“The motion ‘is a public demand’ and expresses a lack of confidence in the government,” Nikos Androulakis, leader of main opposition PASOK said on Tuesday.
The massive protests throughout Greece on February 28 were the result of “a prevailing sentiment that your plan is a coverup plan, a veil of impunity over your own cronies,” the main opposition leader said. “In essence, you are trying to implement at the Tempi tragedy exactly what you did with the wire-tapping scandal: that nobody pays for it,” he claimed.
Androulakis castigated Mitsotakis for saying that trains would become safe by 2027, an electoral year, while nothing has been done for two years since the accident.
“The Greek people want a strong independence of justice, a strong rule of law, and a separation of powers, as in any other European society. There is a great crisis in confidence, for which you are responsible,” he said.
Mitsotakis: Some seek to turn the issue into division
An attempt is underway to create instability, Mitsotakis said on Wednesday while speaking to Parliament. He referred to the report of the National Organisation for Investigating Air and Rail Accidents and Transport Safety (EODASAAM) and stressed that “the report highlights weaknesses but justifies the assessment that, on that tragic night, human failures unfortunately coincided with the state’s perennial shortcomings.”
In his remarks, the prime minister stressed that the Tempi tragedy affects all society, adding that “we must have the determination and strength to oppose the easy impressions that are inflated by easy accusations and lies.”
“We owe it to the relatives of the 57 victims of Tempi. They do not deserve to be a cog in an instrumentalisation of a moment that shook the entire country,” Mitsotakis said.
He stressed that certain circles are seeking to turn the tragic accident into a point of division when it could be a springboard for unity, and noted that the Tempi collision became a tool for the revival of division and toxicity.
Mitsotakis noted that the government is committed to truth and justice, adding that there is the risk that political life could end up in a quagmire of doubting everything.
“The flip side of that political instability is a loss of trust in society. The greatest danger to our democracy,” according to Mitsotakis.
This marks the second time in a year that PASOK has mobilized political parties against New Democracy over Tempi, despite lacking the votes for the motion to pass.
Last March, PASOK filed a similar motion following the leak of audio recordings that contradicted the official narrative of the disaster. However, New Democracy’s parliamentary majority ensured its defeat.
While ‘no confidence’ motions have led to the crumbling of governments across Europe this past year, this new motion is again unlikely to succeed as New Democracy still retains a parliamentary majority.
Related: Tempi Greek Tragedy: From Mass Protests to Political Showdown
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