The clash between the majority and the opposition over the tragic accident in Tempi is expected to be revived today in the plenary session of the Parliament during the discussion of the preliminary inquiry’s conclusion, which calls for the impeachment of former Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Kostas Ach. Karamanlis to the Judicial Council for the offence of breach of duty.

The conclusion text of the New Democracy MPs who participated in the preliminary investigation proposes the “initiation of criminal proceedings against Constantine Karamanlis Achilles for the act of breach of duty and in particular because during the period from September 2021 to 28/2/2023 in violation of Article 40 para. 3 of law 4974/2022, intentionally and to financially damage the public limited company named Organisation of Railways of Greece SA., he failed to:

a. Establish an adequate financing framework for the railway sector.

β. Ensure the allocation to OSE of the public funds necessary for the maintenance, repair, extension and renovation of the railway network and the proper budgeting based on a multi-year Strategic Railway Investment Programme financed by the co-financed or national Public Investment Programme or by resources of the Recovery and Resilience Fund and approved by a joint decision of the Ministers of Infrastructure and Transport, Finance and Development and Investment, for the sake of staffing the company OSE SA with the necessary personnel for its proper operation.

PASOK to withdraw from the vote

On the other hand, PASOK MPs denounced the procedure followed in the preliminary investigation.

Their report notes, among other things, “We denounce the attitude of the majority of the Commission for the unjustified refusal to call witnesses for examination for the investigation of the specific accusation, thus providing full cover for the person under scrutiny, Mr. Karamanlis.

The members of the majority unreservedly accepted the unprecedented, unconstitutional and illegal proposal of Mr. Karamanlis to choose the procedure to be followed, by directly bypassing the Special Parliamentary Committee and directly referring the matter to the Judicial Council without conducting the required investigation. We denounce the attitude of the majority of the Commission, which demonstrates a lack of respect for the institutional obligations arising from Article 86 of the Constitution, by arbitrarily “using” the votes of the majority. The Constitution is being violated to provide the last stage of protection to Mr Karamanlis and complete the cover-up.”

According to reports, the Green CO is oriented towards abstaining from the vote, while it is not excluded that other opposition parties will take the same stance.

Members of SYRIZA also refused to submit a dividend, denouncing the procedure as unconstitutional.

Hellenic Solution called for the procedure to be repeated while Niki argued that the former minister should be prosecuted as a felon.

According to the schedule, the secret ballot will begin at around 9 p.m. and based on the positions of the parliamentary parties, 154 deputies from the New Democracy party’s Central Committee are expected to vote in favor of the impeachment of Karamanlis.

It should be noted that at least 151 positive votes are required for the impeachment of Karamanlis.