Akis Skertsos: “I have lost a brother in a car accident too – my mother lives it every day”

His absolute understanding of the relatives of the victims of the Tempes, as well as he has lost his brother in a car accident, the Minister of State stressed, during its debate against the government. “We experienced despair and I feel the pain of families completely. I know firsthand what it is like to live such a tragedy, I have my mother who lives it every day,” Akis Skertsos said and added: “That is why I am personally and morally offended by the suspicion of cover-up”. “We are not monsters of unconsciousness or unconsciousness, who are trying to manipulate this great tragedy,” he also said and showed a photograph of his brother, his mother and himself. The Minister of State said that the debate is held a year after the tragic accident, at a critical moment, when memory struggles with oblivion, which truth struggles with lies, the rule of law with popular courts, and democracy with conspiracy theories. “And it gives us the opportunity to prove who we are and who we are with. With truth and memory or popular courts, conspiracy theories, harassment and oblivion? We know these things and we have experienced them in the past decade and paid them very dearly,” Mr Skertsos stressed. Tens of lies In his speech, the Minister of State referred to a “ten of lies” heard about the case, such as that government and Justice cover up and delay investigation of the case. The truth is that the government has only to lose politically to the cover-up and delay said Mr. Skertsos and continued: “The trial for the Eye began six years after the great tragedy. The trial of the severe train accident in Spain in 2013, began nine years later… and the decision has still not come out of Spanish justice. The trial for Tempes begins within 2024, a year and a half from the accident.” “What cover-up and what delay are we talking about? He asked Mr Skertsos noting that for the Tempes two defendants have already been detained and prosecuted in 34, with the preliminary questioning remaining open. Do you know how many have been held in custody for the Eye crime to this day? Nobody,” said Mr. Skertsos. In particular about “the lie that the government manipulated public opinion with unified records of talks,” he said: “That is a hybrid for the rule of law. All these alleged revelations would probably have made sense if the stationmaster hadn’t confessed his mistake, the exact audio records had not been presented to Justice to do her job seamlessly and to press charges. As early as March 2, 2023, all media were informed that initial talks and talks were also on another route. But that was a year ago. We didn’t find out the other day with the report. So coals are the treasure of revelation and so-called montage, but the real revelation of the real underground routes between economic interests, between – unfortunately – Syriza and PASOK, already before the publication, as Mr. Pappas confessed and recalled yesterday, which instead of letting Justice do its job, as it should in order not to relive such an accident, are only interested in shortening the government, the Prime Minister, leading to destabilization,” Mr. Skartsos stressed. In his intervention, the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA-PS Theophilus Xanthopoulos said that the government is following a “slip road” when he claims that for the Eye, since the defendants are outside, Syriza is responsible, while for the Tempi, if they are inside, is credited by the ND. Commenting on Mr Skertsu’s position, the parliamentary representative of the PASOK-Movement Change Michael Katrinis asked again, “if the two Ministers of State were on Sunday night, at the house of a well-known media owner, whom you denounce, that they orchestrated this story.” In response, Mr. Skertsos considered it a problem “that in this Chamber parapolitical novels are entered and discussed, things that are unreservedly circulating from here and there, without being able to confirm them. This is also the problem we have to deal with in this case. The fact that you, as opposition parties, have allowed the conspiracy theories to enter the House, into the official political and opposition discourse. That is what I think is a problem, which eats people’s trust.” He reiterated that the government has shown that it trusts Justice, which is the only one responsible and competent to judge the case. “No personal or advantageous benefit does the government have but to shine the truth, to restore confidence in the state’s ability to serve the social contract, citizens’ security, equality and justice. This is judged in the case that deeply damaged citizens’ confidence in the state. It takes too much attention not to relapse again in times that caused too much problems, toxicity, division, and took us too far back.” Mr Skertsos stressed.