“The ND will vote for the proposal to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the causes of the Tempe tragedy – as the government has promised from the very beginning – but it will vote against the Pre-Inquiry Commission proposed by PASOK” clarified the Minister of State Makis Voridis responding to the political leaders of the opposition during the plenary debate.

The minister reversed his criticisms SYRIZA-PS and his PASOK-KINAL on the adoption by the ND of the KKE’s proposal for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry for “tactical” reasons, wondering “how is it possible at the same time when the ND says “yes” to the investigation that you tell us that we are doing it to cover up the responsibilities and if we say “no” in the investigation again our goal is the cover-up”. He criticized PASOK, KKE and “Niki” for “hurrying to delete and vote in favor of all proposals for the investigation of criminal responsibilities”, including SYRIZA without – as he noted – “having even seen it” and “without knowing the accusations attributed to the ministers and you to declare that you have attributed them!”. “If this is not political tacticianism, instrumentalization and trivialization of the parliamentary process then what is?” he said.

Mr. Voridis noted that “immediately after the railway tragedy, the government assumed the objective political responsibility and not just in words, but there was the political act of the resignation of the competent Minister of Transport. Subsequently, the government appointed an administrative committee in order to conduct an expert opinion on the causes, the conclusion was delivered quickly and, of course, the judiciary initiated the control of criminal responsibilities and the relevant criminal prosecutions have been brought.”

He pointed out that “before the elections, the government had said that if the next Parliament request the investigation of the causes, this will of course be accepted for a more thorough full investigation” and he emphasized that “we are absolutely consistent in this” and that is why as soon as the KKE submitted the proposal for the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry “the ND said “yes”, without second thoughts thoughts, without estimates and spins”. “We said that we do not agree with the reasoning and reasoning of the KKE proposal, but we agree with the request. Let it be the Inquiry and from there on, the approaches will obviously develop into the findings and thoughts of the Commission itself,” he added.

About the proposal Pre-investigation Committee of PASOK-KINAL, Mr. Voridis said that “there will be a discussion in the Plenary but I tell you from now on that we will reject it – to make it clear – because there are no criminal responsibilities”. And this, he said, “we know because we read your proposal, we saw your evaluation.” The minister said that “we will answer you in detail on PASOK’s proposal in the debate that will take place in a few days in the Plenary” and added that “it will be a nice criminal debate, because even if I have been a criminal lawyer for 35 years, I will forget the little things… legally that I know as I didn’t know that manslaughter is held and held accountable through the attribution of financial crimes! I really hadn’t heard that, that there are murders with dereliction of duty and with infidelities, I confess that it is difficult for me to watch,” said Mr. Voridis.

The minister repeated many times that “the SW it is put in a clear way: we want the investigation of the causes”. “The Investigative Committees can be turned into Pre-Inquiry Committees” he noted while addressing PASOK he said “this is not what you wanted to expect” and added: “This shows who is pre-decided and who wants the political exploitation of this tragic event. The majority that behaves responsibly from the first moment or the opposition that wants to carry out political exploits and aggressive political pursuits. And I am very sorry that a tragic event could not give the possibility of convergence and unity in the investigation of the real systemic problems of the operation of the railways”.

THE minister of state responding to the comments of the president of the SYRIZA-PS Committee on the functioning of the Commission of Inquiry that will be set up, he said that “the government has no opinion, this is a purely parliamentary issue that will be organized by the Commission itself and will choose which witnesses or not it will call or what will be its presidium” and added that “the work of the Examination Board – as far as I know – is open”.

Regarding the case file of the European Prosecutor that has come to the Parliament, Mr. Voridis said that it “concerns the European budget and discusses the management of Europe’s money” but we “I imagine that we are interested in the discussion of the causes of the tragic accident and there we want to focus our attention and not on a fiscal debate”