Penelope Galliou

Perhaps one of the most critical and certainly the most charged of the nearly four-year government of the ND, is expected to be today’s Council of Ministers which meets at 11 am with the main and sole object of tragic accident in Tempethe country’s railway network and the measures and interventions that will follow.

A meeting that is expected to focus on three main axes, which are:

– the recording of the state of the railways to be done by the three-member committee of experts,

-the announcements for upgrading the infrastructure of the railway network and of his safety and

– the investigation of every aspect by the Justice, in which the government emphatically declares its undivided trust.

Based on these axes and with the aim of making it clear once again to the citizens that no “why” and “how” will be left unanswered and the responsibilities will be attributed, wherever they are and whoever they touch, the prime minister will make his mark government policy.

It is expected, once again, to apologize personally and on behalf of the government, assuming the responsibilities attributed to them.

During the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Kyriakos Mitsotakis will refer to the package of support measures concerning the families of the victims and the injured, and they extend from the compensations that will be paid, to other facilities, such as for example the transfer of students to their place of residence or to the nearest Universities.

Three Ministries, Finance, Labor and Education, are jointly responsible for the support measures, and the specialization of the measures will be done by the relevant Ministers in the coming days.

The prime minister will also refer to the institutional measures and the series of interventions that will contribute to the restoration of the railway network and the safety of the country’s network, in the context of the announcements and the “road map” presented at yesterday’s press conference by the new Minister responsible for the transport Giorgos Gerapetritis.

The central objective of the Maximos Palace and all the involved Ministers is that the decisions and actions that will be launched are direct, fast, effective and “visible” by the citizens, whose sense of trust has been shaken and must be restored.

Anyway, Kyriakos Mitsotakis met yesterday with the EU delegation for the upgrade of the Greek railways, where he emphasized during the meeting that Greece, in the context of the “absolutely transparent investigation of the tragedy in Tempi, will make full use of the expertise and experience of European services”.

According to information, the members of the European mission presented the prime minister with the first thoughts, which will be formulated into specific proposals, for improving the operation of the railway network, the safety of transport, the upgrading of infrastructure, the adoption of best practices and the best possible utilization of European funds for investments in the Greek railways.

The candidacy of Kostas Ah. Karamanlis

At the moment, the candidacy of Kostas Ah is still causing a “headache” in the government camp. Karamanlis, who is applauded for his political equanimity and responsibility to take political responsibility and resign from the Ministry of Transport, however, it is estimated that the faction is not sufficiently “facilitated” with the debate that was opened and maintained for his candidacy in the upcoming elections.

And the government representative, after all, through SKAI, referred the former Minister to the judgment of the citizens through their vote, an opinion in which many party officials stand while some others take a clearer distance, such as Thodoris Roussopoulos who referred Kostas Ah. Karamanlis in the stance he took in 2009, when after his name was involved in the Vatopedi case, for which he was eventually acquitted, he had decided on his own, at that time, not to be a candidate.

However, the position of Theodoris Roussopoulos provoked the reaction of the former Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and as reported by a source of Panagi Kyriakou, the content of the public position of Mr. Roussopoulos and a close associate of the former Prime Minister was not known to him and they express Mr. Roussopoulos personally.