Greek PM embroiled in scandal over doctored audio in deadly 2023 train disaster

(CN) — Opposition parties in Greece are demanding answers — and the resignation of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — amid a scandal over accusations of a government cover-up in a 2023 train collision that killed 57 people, the country's deadliest rail disaster.

The crisis for Mitsotakis erupted this past Sunday when To Vima, a weekly Greek newspaper, reported that audio leaked to the media immediately after the Feb. 28 collision was manipulated to show the disaster was solely the fault of human error.

This revelation revived outrage over the disaster, a deeply sensitive topic in Greece that sparked mass protests and prompted opposition parties on the left to hold a vote of censure in an attempt to bring down Mitsotakis.

Wednesday saw a second day of rancorous parliamentary debate before an expected Thursday vote. With Mitsotakis' center-right New Democracy holding an absolute majority, the censure vote is expected to fail.

“It is, however, putting Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his team in a position they clearly wished to avoid, of having to be present while the accusations against them are aired,” said MacroPolis, an Athens-based political analysis firm, in a briefing note.

The opposition parties charge the government bears responsibility for the disaster by mismanaging railway contracts and failing to act on warnings about the poor state of the network, MacroPolis said.

They also accuse the government of tampering with evidence and squashing parliamentary inquiries into the disaster.

After the crash, Mitsotakis claimed the collision between passenger and freight trains was due “unfortunately, mainly to tragic human error.”

His government dismissed suggestions that neglect and austerity measures, including the privatization of rail services in 2017, were responsible.

But his stance left many Greeks unconvinced. In the days after the disaster, mass demonstrations and riots broke out with protesters accusing the government of systemic neglect and mismanagement of the rail system.

Rail workers had long warned that traffic control and signaling systems did not work properly on the rail line where the collision took place in the Tempe Valley of northern Greece. A month before the Tempe crash, a rail workers’ trade union issued a statement warning a crash was unavoidable unless the signaling system was fixed.

In its report, the To Vima newspaper said the doctored audio leaked after the disaster falsely showed a station master referring to a train that wasn't involved in the accident. That station master, Vassilis Samaras, faces trial in June.

In the leaked audio, Samaras appeared to tell a train involved in the disaster to depart on the wrong track, but in fact that audio related to a separate train, the newspaper said. The newspaper said an unidentified person unlawfully obtained the audio and edited it.

Nikos Androulakis, the leader of the center-left Pasok party, said To Vima’s report showed the train crash was an unresolved crime. He accused the Mitsotakis government of undermining the rule of law.

The censure motion also highlighted other scandals involving Mitsotakis' government, including the leaking of voter lists from the interior ministry to a New Democracy candidate. His government also has been accused of illegally using spyware to monitor journalists, activists, lawyers and opposition politicians.

“It alleges that the events add up to a pattern of behavior by the ruling party which undermines democracy, the rule of law and state institutions,” MacroPolis said.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis accused the opposition parties of seeking to reopen an issue that “has been resolved.”

Even if the censure vote fails, Mitsotakis faces more trouble from the disaster. Polls show his administration's handling of the disaster is “deeply distrusted by a majority of Greeks, including their own voters,” MacroPolis said.

Greek prosecutors are looking at opening an investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing that may have led to the collision.

Last December, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office in Athens brought criminal charges against against 23 suspects, including 18 public officials, accused of fraud in contracts for renovating remote traffic control and signaling systems on the Greek rail network. That work was funded in part by the European Union and the crash may have been caused because the work was not done.

Meanwhile, more than 1.3 million people have signed an online petition demanding that politicians be held responsible for the Tempe disaster and that immunity should be lifted for ministers found responsible.

Calls are mounting for immunity to be removed for Mitsotakis' former transport minister, Costas Karamanlis, and his predecessor Christos Spirtzis, who was part of a government led by the far-left Syriza party.

Courthouse News reporter Cain Burdeau is based in the European Union.

Follow @cainburdeau

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