The Great Greek Train Wreck.

[Mike88]

Horrible tragedy. RIP for the victims.

I've read that the train station manager of Larissa, near the accident site, was arrested by the police and charges will be announced in the coming days.

[Mike88]

Horrible tragedy. RIP for the victims.

I've read that the train station manager of Larissa, near the accident site, was arrested by the police and charges will be announced in the coming days.

The Station Manager was only 36 days into his job, it is said that he had been a book seller at the Department of Education before being appointed Station Manager in the run up to the Election.

However because an Election is due in the next few weeks or months, a lot of political driven rumours will fly and no one will know for sure.

The EU Commision had warned the Greek government about the condition of their railways and that cannot be hidden, but Italy will also be dragged into it.

The train station manager from Larissa, detained yesterday, has been accused by the Public Prosecutor or negligent murder and could face jail time up to 8 years or life imprisonment.

[Mike88]

While Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane only owns the trains and not the railway infrastructure, I am quite frustrated - no actually, embarrassed - that they are pretending to be completely extraneous to the fact.

Speaking of which, I am not even sure all of the trials for the 2009 Viareggio train derailment have ended yet. The scale of everything in this one (structural mismanagement and obscolence, direct human responsibility, death toll) seems so obviously worse, but Greek institutional failures also seem much worse, therefore I have low expectations about the aftermath.

They bought the Greek Railways for 45 million euros in 2017 in exchange for a 50 million euros annual government subsidy until the year 2036.

The actual privatization contract is a state secret and no one has seen or read it, probably not even the people who signed it.

The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane affair is by itself a scandal ready to explode.

So the Greek government pays 50 million euros a year to the Italian government to have it run Greek trains? This would be so funny if it weren't so sad.

Doesn't that violate some kind of EU rule? I mean, a State run company buying another state run company in another member state seems a bit weird. If things are already "sketchy" when other foreign state owned companies, like several Chinese ones, buy state owned companies and there's suspicions of potential commercial irregularities, I assumed that within the EU things were different.

[Mike88]

While Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane only owns the trains and not the railway infrastructure, I am quite frustrated - no actually, embarrassed - that they are pretending to be completely extraneous to the fact.

Speaking of which, I am not even sure all of the trials for the 2009 Viareggio train derailment have ended yet. The scale of everything in this one (structural mismanagement and obscolence, direct human responsibility, death toll) seems so obviously worse, but Greek institutional failures also seem much worse, therefore I have low expectations about the aftermath.

They bought the Greek Railways for 45 million euros in 2017 in exchange for a 50 million euros annual government subsidy until the year 2036.

The actual privatization contract is a state secret and no one has seen or read it, probably not even the people who signed it.

The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane affair is by itself a scandal ready to explode.

So the Greek government pays 50 million euros a year to the Italian government to have it run Greek trains? This would be so funny if it weren't so sad.

Doesn't that violate some kind of EU rule? I mean, a State run company buying another state run company in another member state seems a bit weird. If things are already "sketchy" when other foreign state owned companies, like several Chinese ones, buy state owned companies and there's suspicions of potential commercial irregularities, I assumed that within the EU things were different.

I agree with you but I can't say for certain. I know Ferrovie dello Stato controls or owns shares in other rail companies all over the continent but some of them are small and were always private.

In Britain railways are owned by multiple foreign state companies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_rail_franchising_in_Great_Britain

You got German, Japanese, Italian and until recently Dutch too.

Basically if one Government wants to get rid of a public service they tend to sell it to a better Government and hope for the best

That is very evident in Greece which has sold most services to foreign state companies, and has been highly satirized by greeks.
I could post the video on special request to have a laugh, but I doubt any of you would understand the language.

No, the Danish post service before it merged with the Swedish post service partly owned the Belgian post service.

Thanks for the info, Ingemann. Wasn't aware that the postal services in Denmark were merged with the Swedish one. But, just a follow up, the postal services in Denmark, Sweden and Belgium are 100% State owned, right?

I was surprised, because I wasn't aware that state owned companies in the EU were sold to other state owned from other EU countries. When we talk about banks and other private companies like airports, etc, sure, for example, the banking system in Portugal has a lot of Spanish influence, and we have the case of EDP, the main energy company in the country, that is partially owned by a Chinese State company, but they don't have the majority. But, state sell to other state buy inside the EU was surprising to hear about it.

[Mike88]

Public opinion polls should also appear in the next few days, I believe. The last one is from mid February.

[Mike88]

Looks like the greek legislative elections (there will be two) will be pushed to May 21st and July 2nd, so the opinions polls are currently been as bad for the government as expected.

Has ND lost its consistant polling lead since 2019? I checked the Wikipedia page just earlier today and there wasn't any new survey included.

It's basically a race which party comes out on top because the first vote getter receives an additional 50 seats in parliament (250 allocated by the actual vote and 50 on top for the party that comes in first).

The government was waiting for it's private surveys before making a decision to launch or abort.

They aborted, so logically the surveys are as bad as you can expect after something this big.

As for the electoral system.
The greek constitution maybe like swiss cheese that no one really serves any attention to (at least legally these days).
But one thing is still observed, and that is the right of the government to change the electoral system by simple majority under the provision that it will be enacted for the election after the next one.

So the elections of May 21st will be under the Tsipras system (PR, 3% threshold, + the Mitsotakis right to ban parties), practically 48% needed for a government.

The elections of July 2nd under the Mitsotakis system (PR, 3% threshold, right to ban parties,  + extra seats that gradually increase until reaches 50 over a certain percentage of votes), practically 38% for a single party, 40% for coalitions.

From what I've read in some Greek newspapers about these private polls, using Google Translator, is that ND continues to lead Syriza, but the number of people more wiling to change their mind, and very critical of the government, grew a lot and that it makes things more unpredictable. Also that PASOK has been more critical of SYRIZA and wants to form a ND-PASOK coalition after the elections. However, ND rejects this proposal and prefers a second election.

[Mike88]

The Traffic Director of the Greek Railways has died in a traffic accident when his motorcycle (a 66 year old on a motorcycle ?) hit the back of a van during an attempt to overtake it.

That's a setback for the investigation into the train disaster.

It's not uncommon in Greece for witnesses in major criminal investigations to die in a variety of circumstances, the average length of a trial in Greece is just under a decade and a lot can happen in that time.

But it will fuel conspiracy theories, and again I always considered it unlikely that a proper investigation was ever going to happen.

Well, indeed it's a coincidence that could raise eyebrows. I don't think it's that uncommon to see 60 year olds on a motorcycle. Here in Portugal, I see many, mainly fishmongers, driving their vespa motorcycles around.

[Mike88]

And of course the elections have been officially announced for May 21st.

Already updated the International elections thread.