Greek PM denies 'cover-up' over country's worst train crash

Athens: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday denied that he was attempting to conceal who was to blame for a train crash that killed 57 people in 2023.

Mitsotakis has been under pressure over the disaster, Greece's worst-ever rail tragedy, with more than 40,000 protesters turning out on Sunday in Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki to demand justice for the victims and their families.

"I am not the orchestrator of a cover-up," the conservative premier insisted in an interview with Alpha television almost entirely dedicated to the disaster on February 28, 2023.

That day, shortly before midnight, a train with more than 350 passengers travelling from Athens to Thessaloniki collided head-on with a freight train 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of the capital.

Many of the accident's 57 victims were students.

In the two years since, Mitsotakis's centre-right administration has faced a torrent of accusations of negligence and criminal wrongdoing.

The two trains had been travelling toward each other on the same track for 19 minutes without triggering any alarm system.

In the aftermath the accident was blamed on faulty equipment and human error, while the head of a nearby station was charged.

But a recently leaked experts' report funded by the families of the victims found that the train was carrying an illegal and unreported load of explosive chemicals which contributed to the hefty death toll.

Those revelations have raised fresh questions about the circumstances of the crash and piled more charges of incompetence onto Mitsotakis's government.
Mitsotakis acknowledged the incident had become a "collective trauma" for Greece.

But he categorically refused any suggestion that he should resign.

"If a mistake has been made, the investigating magistrate will rule on it," he said. "The answers can only come from the justice system."

In 2024 his government survived a no-confidence vote brought in connection with the disaster.