Minister of State Akis Skertsos underlined his complete understanding towards the relatives of the victims of Tempe, as he himself has lost his brother in a car accident. during the discussion of the motion of no confidence against the government. “That’s why I am personally and morally offended by the suggestion of a cover-up,” stressed Mr. Schertsos, noting that “we are not monsters of unconsciousness or insensitivity, trying to manipulate this great tragedy.”

Referring to the current debate in the Plenary of Parliament, the Minister of State said that takes place one year after the tragic accident, at a critical moment, when memory fights with forgetting, when truth fights with lies, the rule of law with popular courts, and democracy with conspiracy theories. “And it gives us the opportunity to prove who we are and who we are with. With the truth and with memory or with popular courts, with conspiracy theories, with mob rule and with oblivion? We know these things and we experienced them in the previous decade and we paid a very high price for them”, emphasized Mr. Skertsos.

In his speech, the Minister of State referred to a “ten lies” heard about the case, such as that the government and the judiciary are covering up and delaying the investigation of the case. The truth is that the government only has to lose politically from the cover-up and delay, said Mr. Skertsos and continued: “The trial for Mati started six years after the great tragedy. The trial for the fatal train crash in Spain in 2013 began nine years later… and the decision has still not come out of the Spanish justice system. The Tempi trial begins in 2024, a year and a half after the accident.” “What cover-up and what delay are we talking about? asked Mr. Skertsos, noting that two defendants have already been remanded in custody for Tempi and 34 have been prosecuted, with the preliminary investigation remaining open. Do you know how many people have been remanded for the crime in Mati to date? You do, said Mr. Schertsos.

In particular about the “lie that the government manipulated public opinion with edited records of conversations” he said: “This is an insult to the rule of law. All these alleged revelations would possibly make sense if the station master had not confessed his mistake, the exact audio files had not been presented to the Justice Department to do its job smoothly and bring charges. As early as March 2, 2023, there was information in all the media that the initial speeches and conversations referred to another route. But that happened a year ago. We didn’t discover it yesterday with the publication. Coal, then, is the treasure of the revelation and the so-called montage, but the real revelation of the real underground routes between financial interests, between -unfortunately- SYRIZA and PASOK, already before the publication, as Mr. Pappas confessed and retracted yesterday, which instead to let the judiciary do its job, as it should so that we don’t experience such an accident again, they are only interested in shortchanging the government, the prime minister, and leading to destabilization”, underlined Mr. Skertsos.

In his intervention, SYRIZA-PS parliamentary representative Theofilos Xanthopoulos said that the government is following a “slippery road” when it claims that for Mati, since the accused are outside, SYRIZA is responsible, while for Tempi, since they are inside, it is credited the SW.

Commenting on the position of Mr. Skertsos, the parliamentary representative of PASOK-Movement for Change, Michalis Katrinis, asked again, “if the two State Ministers were on Sunday night, at the home of a well-known media owner, whom you accuse of orchestrating this the story”.

Responding, Mr. Skertsos considered it a problem “that parapolitical fictions enter and are discussed in this room, things that are unsubstantiated and circulate here and there, without anyone being able to confirm them. This is also the problem we are asked to manage in this case. The fact that you, as opposition parties, allowed conspiracy theories to enter the Parliament, into the official political and opposition discourse. I consider this to be a problem, which eats away at citizens’ trust”.

He reiterated that the government has shown that it trusts the judiciary, which is the only one responsible and competent to judge the case. “There is no personal or vested interest for the government, other than for the truth to shine forth, for confidence to be restored in the state’s ability to serve the social contract, the safety of citizens, equality and justice. This is judged in the case that very deeply hurt the citizens’ trust in the state. We need to be very careful not to go back to times that caused very big problems, toxicity, division, and took us back a long way…” Mr. Skertsos emphasized.