[Giorgos Zachos/Intime News]
The government and main opposition PASOK clashed over the Tempe disaster on Friday, following accusations from PASOK spokesperson Kostas Tsoukalas, who claimed that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis lied when he stated shortly after the accident that there was no illegal cargo on the freight train.
In his recent interview, Mitsotakis attributed this claim to reports he received from the Fire Department and Hellenic Train.
“Fifteen days after the accident, the prime minister didn’t say ‘I have information’ or ‘I believe,’ he expressed with certainty that there was nothing flammable that could have caused the fire,” Tsoukalas said on Thursday.
On Friday, government sources responded, accusing Tsoukalas of deliberate misinformation and calling on him to retract his statements. They pointed to that the prime minister based his statements on the Fire Department’s report issued shortly after the disaster.
“He knows, as does everyone following the Tempe tragedy, that in the first on-site investigation report compiled by Fire Department investigators on March 1, 2023, it was clearly stated that the fire was caused by the collision of the two trains,” government sources said, urging Tsoukalas to aknowledge the facts.
Tsoukalas countered by questioning how the Prime Minister could have categorically ruled out the presence of flammable materials based solely on a preliminary inspection report.
“Did he just conclude on his own that the fire was caused by engine oil? How did he rely on a mere ‘preliminary inspection report’ to categorically reject the presence of flammable material?” Tsoukalas asked, calling on the government to tell the truth about the incident.