Meeting with railway workers had the President of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, in the engine room in Renti. Mr. Tsipras discussed the tragedy with workers, craftsmen and train drivers accident in Tempe.

The president of the train drivers, Mr. Kostas Genidounias in the discussion they had styled the attempt to assign all the blame to “human error” and denounced the repeated warnings that their union had addressed to the management and the government about the risk of accidents, due to the “non-functioning of traffic lights and remote control” and “the system failure ETCS (European Traffic Control System), whose “operation protects against the possibility of human error”.

Especially for the system ETCS Mr. Genidounias noted that it “started in March 2019 with a contract to start joining the network”. “From 2008 onwards the network was looted, these systems were working until then, the staff was halved. From 2018 the network was assigned, the double line Athens – Thessaloniki became available and from March 2019 there is a contract for the infrastructure systems. We were assured that they would be completed by 2020,” he said.

Referring to the non-timely operation of the security systems, Mr. Genidounias added that “in 2020 we started the effort with mobilizations, we notified that there are delays, we sent extrajudicial letters to our company, the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ministry of Labor, the OSE and the Regulatory Authority”. He pointed out that “we sent the first court order in September 2021 because we were told that then the works would be finished, then they told us that they would be completed in five months. In February 2022, we again sent a court order, again they told us that in five months the works would be done. From August to September 2022 there were three derailments. We sent an extra-judicial letter again in October 2022 and the OSE answered us that we are telling lies and serving expediencies.”

Mr. Tsipras, for his part, underlined the need for “the truth to come to light, so that we can see and fight the causes of the accident. To give a safety perspective for both you workers and passengers. And so that something similar never happens again”

In the discussions he had with workers, visibly moved, they noted to the President of SYRIZA PS that “every day he was with the workers who lost their lives” on the train in Tempti, as they said “we had traveled countless routes together”. They added that “with the problems that Mr. Genidounias told you about, we always feel fear”.

After the meeting with the railway workers Mr. Tsipras made the following statement to the press representatives:

“I came today to meet the people on the front line here in Rentis. I came first of all to support their mourning for their unjustly lost colleagues. But let me share their anguish: that the whole truth should come to light, that nothing should remain hidden.

It is a fact that what I saw, what they told me, is that they had made repeated attempts to highlight the problem.

They described to me the chronicle of a foretold tragedy, the causes of which, no expediency can conceal.

And at this time of mourning, I have only one thing to say. We owe it to the people we lost unjustly to do everything we can, everything in our power, so that nothing and no one is left in the dark.

Nothing and no one should be forgotten. No responsibility to hide. Only in this way will we have done our duty so that we never experience a tragedy like this again.”