“Not to advocate the policy of exploitation of the Tempe tragedy that has been attempted by specific factions for months. Only the truth and not the falsification of reality will bring about purification» asked the former Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Konstantinos Ah. Karamanlis during the discussion in the Plenary of the proposals to refer him to a Pre-Investigation Committee submitted by SYRIZA and PASOK-KINAL.

Mr. Karamanlis, starting his presentation, stated that “I treat this whole process with absolute respect and I do not intend to fall into the trap of either personal or petty political party confrontation” and emphasized that “I will position myself with seriousness, responsibility and respond to what has been deliberately – in my opinion – said» with respect above all to the victims who perished so unjustly in Tempi

“We owe the truth” emphasized the former minister “that’s why I will talk to you with evidence, which I believe will prove to you what the state of the railways was in the last thirty years. What did the Government of ND receive in 2019 and what actions did it take so that today as we speak the work of contract 717 has been completedi”.

Mr. Karamanlis attributed the opposition’s accusations to either ignorance or political expediency.

Taking a look back at the remote control and signaling systems that had started to be installed on the railway network since 1985 through 15 contracts and had a total budget of 250 million euros, the former minister noted that “unfortunately they were systems that were never put into operation».

For the downsizing and upgrading, it was decided to tender the project.

The signing of the 717 contract took 3 years, it took place in September 2014, which demonstrates the difficulty of upgrading equipment that was initially heterogeneous and in many cases already obsolete. The joint venture Alstom-TOMI was declared the contractor with a price of 41.3 million Euros” The contract, Mr. Karamanlis observed, while it had to be completed by September 2016, the SYRIZA Government from August 2016 to March 2019 gives the project 6 overtimes!

All extensions were granted with an explicit reference that they are without the sole fault of the Contractor. What does this mean; It means that the project owner, i.e. ERGOSE, i.e. the Greek government, accepted that it was complicit in the late completion of the Contract”

Mr. Karamanlis referring to the implementation of the 717 contract during the period of the SYRIZA Government, i.e. until 2019, listed that:

Firstly, 6 extensions were given for the completion of Contract 717, with ERGOSE, that is, the Greek government, acknowledging responsibility for the delays and not the contractor.

Second, the implementation progress was low, nominally 33%, but in reality the operational part was 18%.

Thirdly, while the 1st Supplementary Agreement had been approved by the Court of Auditors, it had not been signed by ERGOSE, therefore it could not be implemented.

Fourth, the proper application studies for the SKA – Platy section had not been submitted. Fifth, a budgetary correction was imposed by EDL for the return of 2.2 million euros to the European Union”.

The former minister, for the period of the ND Government from 2019 to September 2023, pointed out that there were three extensions and Convention 717 was completed in September 2023″, while “under SYRIZA we had 6 extensions with minimal progress”.

Mr. Karamanlis referred to the “targeted moves made to get the project out of the way”.

Especially for the 7th extension he gave to the 717 contract, he said that “because I am fighting for this decision, let’s see what the alternatives would be and what the consequences would be if I didn’t sign the extension and the Contractor was declared disqualified in March 2020. given that 6 extensions had been granted from 2016 to 2019, with ERGOSE’s acknowledged complicity in the delays, it is certain that the Contractor would appeal to the courts against the discount. And it would achieve a large compensation at the expense of the State.

We would have stopped the project immediately. A new tendering process would have to be initiated, which means at least 2 years of delay until a new Contractor is appointed… And at best another 2-3 years to complete the project.

Finally, and after these, how certain would the maintenance of EU funding be? Therefore, the arguments regarding the declaration of the Contractor as exempt and the termination of the Contract in March 2020, not only do not stand logically, but it is certain that they would damage the State and further delay the completion of the project”.

Mr. Karamanlis also referred to the compensations requested by the Consortium, noting that “I was also called upon to resolve the Consortium’s claims for positive damages. The Consortium had submitted compensation requests totaling 26.5 million euros for the period 2017-2020. And finally a decision was issued for the payment of a compensation amount of 2.7 million euros, i.e. a percentage of approximately 10% of the total requested amount.

If these claims had been heard in the Courts, there was a serious possibility that the compensation amount would have been much higher than 10% of the original claim. And this is because in the extensions that were given, ERGOSE accepted that it was complicit in the delays».

Summarizing, the former minister pointed out that “we closed all the open issues that were not addressed in the previous period, i.e. submission of correct studies for the SKA-Platy section, signing of the 1st Supplementary Contract, maintaining the project budget, and closing the claims for positive damages of the Contractor. We restarted the execution of the project on a proper basis. By the end of 2022, the systems in 19 (out of the remaining 37) stations were delivered to OSE in full, 10 of the 17 stations delivered by the end of 2016 were reconstructed without major expense, and the remote control and signaling center in Thessaloniki was delivered . We modernized the institutional framework for the construction of the country’s railway projects”. We delivered the 717 completed on budget last September”

Mr. Karamanlis referred to the criticism that he “kept the conclusion of the National Transparency Authority in his drawer” explaining that this conclusion was submitted to ERGOSE and the Financial Prosecutors, and was communicated to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport. The conclusion comes to the conclusion that there were “unintentional” delays in the implementation of the project… The conclusion proposed disciplinary proceedings against 15 employees of ERGOSE, which the then President of the Company’s Board of Directors proceeded competently in November 2021. The conclusion recommended the return by the Contractor of the amount of 1.3 million euros, a provision that was included in the 33rd negative account” and he emphasized that “this is the conclusion invoked by both the Athens Appeals Prosecutors and the Financial Crimes Prosecutor, who they put the case files on file because there was no evidence of the crime of infidelity».

Mr. Karamanlis said in a personal tone that “from the first hours, I was at the scene of the accident. The images I saw will never be erased from my memory. I resigned immediately and published the text of my resignation, on the way back and before arriving in Athens. This is what my ethics and principles dictated. I never thought for a moment of hiding behind the responsibilities of others. I assumed the objective political responsibility not only for my own term, but also for the terms of all my predecessors. Something extremely rare for the political morals of our country.”

But my resignation had another important aspect. Let there be no trace of shadow, the slightest suspicion that by remaining in the position of Minister I could in any way influence the complete clarification of the case. So I am the first to wish that a lot of light be shed” and he charged that “some political opponents have chosen the extreme – not to say “vulgar” – exploitation of the unspeakable tragedy. Their goal is not the truth.”

In fact, the former minister referred to five fake news that were circulated by the dark mechanisms of the internet and by accounts that harass everyone, even their “former partners”, by “cutting” and “stitching” his placements. Characteristically, he mentioned that he was accused of wagging his finger in response to a topical question from a SYRIZA MP about railway safety, when the question and answer concerned the historic Pelion roller coaster for which the MP was asking him to be exempted from safety standards, and the its drivers are not certified! This is what SYRIZA wanted!” He mentioned that the leader of SYRIZA, Mr. Tsipras, “ran for the electoral district of Serres. To “punish” my candidacy. To bring down, as he claimed, the castle from the inside. Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, these are the new habits of the opposition in our country. These are her tactics. Jealousy, attacks without any boundaries, kicks below the waist, lies, toxicity.”

Mr. Karamanlis underlined that “the victory of New Democracy, as well as my re-election, do not erase any responsibility. It is not the pool of Siloam. No one has ever argued for such a thing. But it is, the defeat of vulgarity, it is the defeat of toxicity”. Responding to the Opposition MPs who characterized his resignation as pretentious” Mr. Karamanlis said “I immediately assumed the objective political responsibilities. And they were undertaken because this tragic event occurred in my area of ​​political supervision. This means political responsibility” clarifying that “political responsibility, however, is not equal to criminal responsibility. In this country, criminal responsibilities are still carried out by an independent judiciary. Not by popular courts.” He denied that he is “hiding in immunity” reminding that “the investigation of any criminal acts while performing the duties of a Minister is done in accordance with Article 86 of the Constitution “on the responsibility of Ministers” and only by the Parliament”.

Mr. Karamanlis also responded to the claims that if the 717 contract had been concluded with certainty the Tempe accident would not have happened, he said that “this is not true. According to all experts’ assessments, the collision could possibly have been prevented only if the European Railway Traffic Management System, the so-called ERTMS (European Railway Traffic Managing System), which concerns the Trans-European High-Speed ​​Transport Networks, was functioning in its entirety. In the PATHE axis, according to the European Regulation, it should be completed in 2030. At the moment, in the entire EU, ERTMS is only installed in 13-18%. The signalling-remote control covered by the 717 contract is only a small part of ERTMS. The rest of the systems that also had to be operational are the GSMR, but also the ETCS automatic braking system, both on the wires and on the lines.”

The former minister said that he is ready to give answers to the Inquiry.