With the release of the National Accident Investigation Agency report, and in the wake of Friday’s rally, the key facts about the Tempi accident are on the table.
Everybody knows now. Everyone can judge now. Nothing remains hidden or unanswered.
It’s time to pass the baton on to the Greek Parliament and, of course, the judiciary, which has been investigating the incident for two years.
Tuesday, Parliament will debate setting up a preliminary committee to investigate the competent deputy minister, Christos Triantopoulos. This will be followed Wednesday by a discussion at the party leadership level.
PASOK has announced it will be moving a motion of no confidence in the government the same day. The second such vote relating to the same issue in eleven months.
What all this will achieve in terms of the substance of the case remains unknown.
Will it lead to fundamental changes on the Greek political scene? That’s not clear, either.
But the developments do form a chain of constitutional and parliamentary procedures which will be seen through to the end. They are a legitimate part of the democratic process.
The Opposition believes Tempi has backed the government into a corner, and it will seek to exploit the timing to unsettle the administration.
The government, for its part, will attempt to assert its dominance. Some of the smaller parties have called for the government to resign, but without any realistic chance of their demands being taken seriously.
In any case, no poll to date has so much as hinted at the possibility of political upheaval.
Of course, all of this will be given ample coverage in the news cycle, but it shouldn’t obscure what’s essential.
Which is that justice is delivered by the courts and not on the television.
And that Tempi has shone a light on the tragically chaotic conditions in which Greece’s railways operate.
Justice will undoubtedly take its course. But somebody—and that somebody is clearly the government—has to address the railway problem immediately and effectively.
We cannot have people traveling in conditions of dubious safety, with the numerous dangers detailed in the National Accident Investigation Agency report hanging over their heads.
The exaggerations, expediencies and hypocritical tactics that surround any tragic accident are, of course, obvious to us all.
They may well be inevitable. But they are of secondary importance.
The priority in all such cases is justice.
And an imperative in this case to ensure modern and safe rail transport of the sort every European nation manages to provide for its citizens.
This is what must be tabled, with the utmost seriousness and as an absolute priority.
