By Penelope Galliou

The political and state leadership of the country is devastated by the unspeakable tragedy in Temperushed to the scene of the tragic train accident doing the least – as it was said – that they could do in front of an unprecedented event that “bent” the whole country and raised in everyone’s thoughts and minds a huge “why”.

The President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the leader of the official opposition, the president of PASOK, an echelon of the KKE and government officials rushed to the scene, shocked, looking for answers as well.

The grief and pain of the loss of dozens of lives and many more injured, the horrifying images of the shapeless mass of ironwork and the wreckage of the tragedy overshadowed any intention of political confrontation from the crash site with the entire political world mourning and “freezing” towards hour his anger for the search for responsibilities, over and above the human error, which was said early on and seems to be attributed to the responsible stationmaster of Larissa.

However, the resignation a few hours later of the former Minister of Transport Kostas Ah. Karamanlis, but also the prime minister’s televised message after his return from the scene of the tragedy, automatically opened the political debate about the responsibilities, the search and their performance.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the formation of an independent and cross-party committee of experts that will investigate the causes of the fatal accident in Tempi, announcing that the Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis will take over as the interim Minister of Transport after the resignation of Mr. Karamanlis, while at the same time he made it known that their resignations were also submitted by the heads of OSE and ERGOSE.

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

Referring to the resignation of Kostas Ah. Karamanlis, the Prime Minister emphasized that the former Minister of Transport assumed the objective political responsibility, with his resignation and commented that “his attitude honors him, as everything shows that the drama is due, unfortunately, mainly to a tragic human error”.

He also announced that he asked Giorgos Gerapetritis “to quickly proceed 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 examine the chronic delays in the implementation of the railway projects”. At the same time, as he emphasized, “Justice will do its own work. The responsibilities will be assigned. While the state will stand by the families of the victims. We will mourn our children, our brothers, our friends. We will remain united and in this tragedy. And, then, we will 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,” concluded the Prime Minister in his message.

SYRIZA chose low tones but with clear points in its comment on the Prime Minister’s message, noting that “respect for the victims presupposes respect for the truth” and added “in these moments of mourning and pain we will not be tempted to comment on the Prime Minister’s statement , which is quick to prejudge that the tragedy is mainly due to human error. Respect for the victims presupposes respect for the truth. Everything will be told at the right time.”

PASOK maintained similar tones, also leaving clear points, commenting on the Prime Minister’s message: “Sympathizing with the time of mourning and suffering, we note that the responsibilities will be fully attributed and at the right time.

This does not mean, however, that we will tolerate the Prime Minister once again abdicating government responsibilities, invoking after four years of governance chronic pathologies and the objective political responsibility of his Minister.

Governments exist to deal with pathogens and not to invoke and perpetuate them,” said Harilaou Trikoupi in her comment.

“It is a day of unspeakable sadness for the unprecedented multi-fatal train accident in Tempe, but also anger at how it is possible to lose human lives in this tragic way,” commented Dimitris Koustoubas, demanding a full investigation into the causes of this tragedy, and stressing “to let nothing be hidden or disguised.”

Kyriakos Velopoulos demanded the resignation of the entire government, blaming all the parties that have ruled in recent years.

“Today is a day of sadness and solidarity. This does not mean that we will remain apathetic in the face of the effort to find atoning victims among workers” commented Yannis Varoufakis.