On Thursday, the administration of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will face a vote of no confidence related to the train accident that took place on February 28, 2023, when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train, resulting in the deaths of 57 people.

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Previously, the To Vima weekly revealed that his administration attempted to strengthen the “human error” explanation by manipulating a conversation between the station chief and the train’s engineer.

“In every scandal, in every government failure, the political decision is made to hide the truth, instead of taking the difficult path of accountability,” said Nikos Andrulakis, leader of the socialist Pasok party, which introduced the motion of no confidence.

The proposal is also supported by the leftist Syriza, the leading opposition party, which calls for the resignation of Mitsotakis and the holding of early elections. Two other leftist parties and three far-right parties also announced that they will vote against the government.

While at least 120 out of 300 legislators are expected to vote in favor of the motion, Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party control the parliamentary majority, making it unlikely that his administration will ultimately be censured.

Radio MEGA revealed that the manipulation of the recording involved presenting as a single conversation two discussions that the station chief had with the engineer of the collided train and with an engineer of another convoy that was not involved in the incident.

The manipulated audio suggests that the passenger train’s engineer received confirmation of a clear track twice, instead of once, strengthening the human-error theory.

In contrast, the explanation related to the lack of safety systems would have shown that there were no mechanisms to warn that a freight convoy was approaching head-on.

Pavlos Marinakis, the spokesperson of the Mitsotakis administration, denied the manipulation of audio and claimed that there is an anti-government campaign to “sabotage the country’s path of progress.”

He accuses the AlterEgoMedia group and its To Vima weekly of wanting to harm the government for economic interests, something they have denied, stating that reactions like this have led Greece to rank 107th in press freedom.

Although the station chief himself has admitted to making a mistake by putting the two trains on the same track, there were no safety systems in place on the section where the accident occurred to alert of that error.

The station chief and several former executives of the state-owned railway company OSE have been charged with negligent homicide. Following the incident, mass protests and strikes against Mitsotakis ensued to demand political accountability.

In June 2023, Mitsotakes was reelected with an absolute majority. However, over the last month, public discontent against his administration has revived due to the hasty closure of a parliamentary inquiry commission into the accident.

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