The formation of an independent and supra-party committee of experts that will investigate the causes of the deadly accident in Tempi, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in his message to the Greek people. At the same time, he announced that the Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis is taking over as the interim Minister of Transport after the resignation of Mr. Karamanlis, while at the same time he made it known that the heads of OSE and ERGOSE also submitted their resignations.

The full text of the Prime Minister’s message follows:

I have just returned from the scene of a tragedy that will forever be etched in our collective memory. Dozens of our fellow citizens, most of them young children, lost their lives there, in a horrible train accident unprecedented in our country.

I thank from the bottom of my heart the women and men of the state apparatus who mobilized from the first moment. Firefighters and rescuers, officers of the EKAV, the Police, the Local Government, as well as the doctors and health workers and the psychologists in our hospitals. They did and are doing their best under extremely adverse conditions.

I met relatives of the victims and the missing in the hospital of Larissa. In their unspeakable pain, with a surplus of dignity, they asked me “why”. And they told me “never again”. We owe them an honest answer.

The Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Kostas Karamanlis, assuming the objective political responsibility, immediately submitted his resignation. So are the heads of the OSE and ERGOSE. His attitude honors him, as everything shows that the drama is due, unfortunately, mainly to tragic human error.

Transitional Minister, until the national elections, is appointed the Minister of State, Giorgos Gerapetritis, from whom I have already asked to proceed quickly with the establishment of an independent and cross-party Committee of Experts, which will fully examine the causes of the accident. But it will also look at the perennial delays in the implementation of railway projects.

At the same time, Justice will do its own work. Responsibilities will be assigned. While the state will stand by the families of the victims. We will mourn our children, our siblings, our friends. We will remain united in this tragedy as well. And then we’ll bow our heads and grit our teeth. We will work so that this “never again” that I heard in Larissa will not remain an empty word.