Greek PM appoints new ministers after train tragedy protests

Kyriakos Mitsotakis (AP photograph)

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reshuffled his cupboard on Friday, appointing new finance and transport ministers and handing different key portfolios to youthful officers.
The reshuffle is available in response to current mass protests over the nations’s worst rail tragedy.
Mitsotakis is making an attempt to win again the general public’s belief after the train crash in 2023 that killed 57 folks.
The second anniversary, final month, of the Tempi railway catastrophe led to massive protests over suspicions that the federal government is making an attempt to cowl up the case.
Popular ministers get the nod within the reshuffle
Mitsotakis’ New Democracy occasion faces declining approval rankings amid the political fallout from the catastrophe.
A ballot for Star TV discovered that greater than 50% of Greeks need early elections, and greater than 65% of ruling occasion voters consider authorities officers ought to be placed on trial for the accident.
The prime minister appointed Kyriakos Pierrakakis, the favored former minister of digital governance, because the new finance minister. He replaces Kostis Hatzidakis, who’s now deputy prime minister overseeing financial development insurance policies.
Christos Dimas is the new transport minister, tasked with overhauling Greece’s railways.
Mitsotakis additionally picked Stavros Papastavrou and Nikos Tsafos for the surroundings and power portfolios, as Greece hopes to make its economic system greener whereas additionally on the lookout for fuel reserves on its territory.
What was the Tempi railway catastrophe?
The rail catastrophe occurred on February 28, 2023, when a passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki collided with a freight train.
Fifty-seven folks died within the crash, together with many college students, and lots of extra had been injured.
The two trains had traveled towards one another for miles with out triggering any alarms. The accident was blamed on defective tools and human error.
A just lately issued impartial report denounced the dilapidated situation of the rail community. It additionally highlighted critical shortcomings within the investigation of the accident.
Earlier this month, parliament voted to analyze whether or not a senior official dispatched to the scene by Mitsotakis approved the bulldozing of the crash web site, resulting in the lack of important proof.
More than 40 folks have been prosecuted, together with a neighborhood station grasp liable for routing the trains, who has been charged with “homicide due to negligence.”