ATHENS: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his cabinet on Friday, as he faces falling approval ratings and fresh protests over the nation’s worst rail tragedy.
The move came a week after the government overcame a no-confidence vote over its handling of the deadly 2023 train disaster, which has again sparked protests in Athens and other cities since January.
Mitsotakis changed heads at several top ministries including finance, transport, migration and civil protection, according to a televised statement by government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis.
The foreign and defence ministers were unchanged.
The rail crash happened on February 28, 2023, when a train carrying more than 350 passengers collided with a freight train, killing 57.
The two trains had travelled towards each other on the same track for miles without triggering any alarms. It was blamed on faulty equipment and human error.
Over 40 people have been prosecuted, including the local station master responsible for routing the trains, but a trial into the accident is not expected before the end of the year.
A protest held on the second anniversary of the tragedy drew hundreds of thousands of people nationwide.
In Athens, it has been described as the biggest demonstration since the fall of the Greek dictatorship in 1974.
An experts’ report funded by the victims’ families has claimed the freight train was carrying an illegal and unreported load of explosive chemicals, which contributed to the high death toll.
Greece’s state aviation and railway safety investigation agency last month said there was a “possible presence” of an “unknown fuel” at the scene which killed some survivors of the collision by triggering an “enormous ball of fire”.
The train’s Italian-owned operator, Hellenic Train, has denied knowledge of any illegal cargo.
Recent polls have found that a broad majority of Greeks suspect the government is trying to cover up the case.
More than 50 percent of Greeks want early elections, and more than 65 percent of ruling party voters believe government officials should be put on trial for the accident, a poll for Star TV found earlier this month.
“They are taking us for fools,“ Tempe Victims’ Association president Maria Karystianou, whose daughter was killed in the crash, told students at Athens’ Panteio university this week.
She said the phones of Mitsotakis and other senior officials should be examined to determine whether “orders were given” to investigators to “destroy and conceal evidence” at the collision site.
Last week, parliament voted to launch an investigation into whether a senior official dispatched by Mitsotakis to the scene after the accident authorised the bulldozing of the crash site, leading to the loss of vital evidence.
A previous parliamentary committee investigating the tragedy concluded last March without assigning blame to senior politicians.
