The families of the 57 victims of the train collision in Greece have filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and other officials ahead of the legislative elections on Sunday. Christos Konstantinidis, a representative of the families’ group, stated that this lawsuit is more important than the elections and concerns 16 individuals, including the head of government and transportation ministers.
The list of defendants also includes executives from the public company OSE and the private group Hellenic Train, who are responsible for the railway network and passenger transportation. The families are demanding that those responsible be held accountable before the justice system and have filed a detailed complaint with the Larissa court, near the site of the accident.
The Prime Minister expressed regret over the politicization of this matter just before the elections and noted that the understandable anger of the families does not justify such behavior. The collision between a freight train and a passenger train exposed the serious deficiencies in the railway network and the delays in modernizing the safety systems. The majority of the victims were students returning from a long weekend.
Initially, Mitsotakis attributed the disaster to a tragic human error but later apologized for the failures and malfunctions of the railway network. The Minister of Transportation resigned on the day of the accident. The Prime Minister, from the right-wing New Democracy party, seeks to remain in office after the elections, which will be held under the shadow of this tragedy that sparked protests throughout the country.