The Greek Parliament held a late-night vote on Thursday to consider a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, but it was ultimately rejected. 159 MPs voted against the opposition’s motion while 141 parliamentarians supported it. As a result, the government under Mitsotakis remains in power. The social democratic party Pasok requested the vote of no confidence and was backed by all opposition parties.
The focus of the motion was a serious train accident that occurred about a year ago, when a freight train collided with an Intercity near Larissa, resulting in the death of 57 people. The Larisa station manager confessed before the judiciary that he directed the Intercity onto the wrong track. The opposition accused the government of manipulating evidence, particularly leaked radio conversations between the train drivers and a station master that implied the accident was solely due to the station manager’s mistakes.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis admitted that the state bore some responsibility for the accident as railways’ safety systems functioned inadequately. However, he argued that if only Larisa station manager had done his job correctly, then this accident would not have occurred. The investigation revealed poor conditions of railway network and inadequate safety precautions.
The train accident deeply shocked Greece especially as many victims were young people returning to universities after public holidays and left behind desolate condition of railway network and poor safety precautions which highlighted shortcomings in Greek railway system still unclear when this incident will be dealt with in court.