ATHENS (Reuters) – The Greek parliament voted on Tuesday to set up a committee to investigate how a minister handled the aftermath of a deadly 2023 train crash, days after violent protests over a perceived lack of government accountability brought businesses to a halt.
Hundreds of thousands of Greeks took to the streets on Friday to mark the second anniversary of the country’s worst rail disaster that killed 57 people, most of them students, demanding justice for the victims.
On Wednesday, fresh protests were scheduled outside parliament, where political leaders were set to debate responsibility over the rail tragedy. Opposition parties were likely to submit a censure motion against the government.
A majority of 277 lawmakers in the 300-seat house backed the motion by the main opposition for the new committee.
Deputy Civil Protection Minister Christos Triantopoulos, who was a state minister at the time of the crash, resigned from his post on Tuesday, to support the inquiry by parliament, the only body that can lift politicians’ immunity and probe them.
Parliament will investigate a potential breach of duty. Triantopoulos has denied any wrongdoing.
A judicial investigation into the crash is in progress.
Relatives of the victims have criticized the centre-right government, which won re-election after the crash in 2023 and has 156 parliamentary seats, for not initiating or supporting a parliamentary inquiry into political responsibility.
They say that the authorities attempted to cover up evidence by laying down gravel at the scene soon after the crash. Triantopoulos, who was at the site after the incident, has dismissed the allegations as groundless.
Christos Papadimitriou, head of the rail division of Greece’s Air and Rail Accident Investigation Authority, an independent agency set up months after the crash, last week told the Kathimerini paper that authorities’ ignorance and lack of experience were possible reasons for the loss of significant evidence from the scene.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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