The general secretary of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoubas, in an interview on Thursday night, on ERT1, when asked about the tragedy in Tempi, said that “we insist on what we said from the first moment that this is a prescribed crime. We said it before as it is well known that in the Parliament, the members of the KKE had raised this issue warning of a major accident on the Greek railways. Also, the trade union faction that supports PAME in the railway workers had issued a statement in early February on this issue and warned of an accident. “Other trade unionists last year raised this issue very urgently and asked for immediate measures to be taken and nothing was done.”

“So we are talking about a crime for which the responsibilities must be sought, in addition to the existing criminal ones that the Justice will look for (responsibilities) that the station master, a supervisor, a doctor or anyone else may have, (and) not to cover the real responsibilities that lie both in the state, in the state OSE, and in the private, after all, state-owned company of the Italian railways that has bought the means of transport of the railways, and of course in the governments. To the current ND government, but also to the previous ones who prepared this tragedy,” he added.

When asked about it, he said that “we have to go back as far as necessary to find those responsible, at least, not to mention earlier when the “liberation” of the railways started with EU Directives, at least in the last 15 years”.

As he explained, “it started in 2009 with the PASOK government with the issue of ‘liberation’, then, in 2013, the ND-PASOK government went too far with privatization and the decisive, criminal in our view, actions took place, then in 2016 the division of the OSE and the separation in 2017 of the means of transport given to the Italian company for 45 million euros, without safety specifications and specific investments and of course a series of changes in 2017 and 2018 by the SYRIZA government that changed labor relations, railway employees were transferred, at least 1700 posts were left vacant. And here comes the ND government, which advances the privatization of TRAINOSE, and also the final blow is passed, the new EU Directive for the completion of the “liberation” of the railways, which was voted for by ND, SYRIZA, PASOK”.

Regarding whether a Commission of Inquiry should be set up to investigate the case, by this Parliament or by the next one, D. Koutsoubas said that “the experience of Commissions of Inquiry is negative. Within the Parliament, it cannot investigate political, criminal responsibilities, we have repeatedly, there is the experience of the Commissions of Inquiry that did not lead to any substantial results”.

He recalled the position of the KKE for changing the law on the responsibility of ministers so that the Justice is directly responsible for the responsibilities of the ministers and not for this to be transferred to the Parliament with the respective majorities of the Inquiry Committees “which ultimately means a cover-up” and noted that with his proposal KKE, the other parties did not agree.

D. Koutsoubas described the mobilizations as “very important, especially of the youth” pointing out, among other things, that the slogan “is not to blame for the bad times, nor for the bad country, it is the profit and those who ruled and are ruling this country that are to blame » unites many people of different ideological and political origins.

“That’s where the people come together and not at the “peaks” and in the various Alisversias to make fun of the world,” he said, when asked if these demonstrations “can bring the KKE closer to other parties of the left.”

Regarding reports by G. Varoufakis and similar officials of MeRA25 that “they have a dream to cooperate with the KKE”, D. Koutsoubas characteristically said “I do not have a dreamer for such dreams to interpret them” adding that Mr. Varoufakis and the DAY 25 “in 2015 they were talking about the privatization of the railways, they were talking in favor of the EU Directive to “liberate” the railways, until the day before yesterday Mr. Varoufakis was talking with Mr. Tsipras and SYRIZA about a progressive government on two or three points. Today he is proceeding to build “SYRIZA No. 2” with LAE and some other such pre-election forces. It also has a “Euroleague” towards the EU which is primarily responsible for the Directives and measures that led to such tragedies in Greece, but also in other EU countries.

In the journalistic observation that G. Varoufakis is talking about a “different EU”, D. Koutsoubas pointed out “yes, but within the EU of monopolies, the capitalist system and privatizations. It does not speak of another Europe where the working class and the people will be in power and fight for another path, to socialism with social justice and prosperity.”

D. Koutsoubas categorically ruled out “any collaboration of the KKE with the parties of the bourgeois system”.

Asked to comment on the statement of a SYRIZA MP about possible cooperation with Mr. Velopoulos, he said that “we were not surprised, it is not the first time something like this has happened, for five years Mr. Tsipras co-governed with Mr. Kammenos. What is the difference between Velopoulos and Kammenos? They are of the same direction, such a party.”

Asked if he could “cooperate with the KKE or give a vote of tolerance to a special purpose government for the tragedy of Tempe” he emphasized that “if such a government is formed it will be to cover up the real culprits, the real responsibilities and the causes that led to it the tragedy”.

“There is no way that the KKE will tolerate such a government,” said D. Koutsoumbas.

He also said that “a government, either universal, special purpose, or party cooperation, can emerge from the first Sunday of the elections because the urban parties have common strategic choices”.

“They are not the same urban parties, they have differences between them, but in the basic issues, such as the ones we are discussing, they move on the same track as the EU which leads to tragic results for the youth and our people” D. Koutsoubas concluded in his interview .