ATHENS – A train wreck that killed 57 people. A refugee boat sinking that killed hundreds. A spyware scandal a prosecutor said was just a coincidence. Promised probes that go nowhere to be forgotten.

That’s the new normal in Greece, the ruling New Democracy government in its second term without any real opposition and able to do what it wants, but what critics said has bred a feeling of arrogance and unchecked power.

In a review of a series of sensational and sometimes deadly incidents that has seen ministers and aides and high-ranking officials not charged, POLITICO says: “In the country famous for inventing democracy, there’s a sense it is fraying.”

Under the headline ‘Greece – The Country That Lets People Escape Justice’ – the news site said the scandals, “add up, add up to a feeling that justice is crumbling – and that those in power don’t want to rectify it. Or worse, are culpable.”

The lingering confidential investigation into the 2023 train wreck cleared then-transport minister Kostas Karamanlis, who was then elected to Parliament on the New Democracy ticket amid cries of a coverup, only a handful of railway executives and a stationmaster charged but none brought to trial.

The probe into the refugee shipwreck has yielded essentially nothing after the Coast Guard crew said to have been involved was cleared by the government despite testimony from survivors it attached a tow rope to the refugee boat, capsizing it.

A Supreme Court prosecutor – with Parliament out of session – released a report saying there was no evidence the government was behind the use of Predator spyware, although the National Intelligence Service EYP was bugging phones.

“There is a sense of a systematic and concerted effort to downplay certain incidents,” Andreas Pottakis, Greece’s ombudsman, an independent official who looks into state maladministration, told the news site.

He said that this breeds “suspicions of an attempted cover-up” and negligence that “could involve political leadership,” although Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis says there’s no wrongdoing in his administration.

Pointing to the three examples, the news site said that, “in isolation, these may look like the type of unfortunate incidents that any government might have to deal with. But their handling has raised disturbing questions.”

It noted that the government’s weakened rivals – the major opposition SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis is facing challenges to his leadership – victims groups, and independent investigators said the government is whitewashing everything.

“Talk of cover-ups and allege crucial witnesses were blocked, legal documents were ignored and victims sidelined. Parliamentary probes have done little but muddy the waters,” it said, New Democracy lawmakers in a majority blocking them.

UP AGAINST THE WALL

Vas Panagiotopoulos, who covers Greece for Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a non-profit organization that defends press freedoms, said that, “by giving a deceptive impression of a well-functioning democracy, with parliamentary inquiry committees unable to effectively conduct their work, what is actually happening sometimes amounts to direct political meddling and the neutralizing of independent watchdogs’ members.” Mitsotakis, said RSF isn’t credible on these matters.

But the news site also that New Democracy’s lead buffers the Conservatives from any attempts to really investigate – any efforts thus far have been sidelined or sent into the country’s notorious file of investigations that go nowhere.

“Greeks perceive that public standards have eroded, whereby verbal attacks on journalists from high-ranking politicians have become commonplace, independent authorities are undermined, several migrant pushbacks have been alleged, police brutality is increasing, and civil society and media pluralism is under threat,” it said.

A survey by the Eteron Institute to mark the 50th anniversary of Greece’s return to democracy, found only 29 percent of people trust the country’s judiciary and most believe corruption is rampant, including in politics.

In an interview with POLITICO, Mitsotakis defended his country’s record. “I’ve always believed that we need to have faith in the Greek justice system,” he said, an idea mocked by critics who said the judiciary is protecting the government.

The outrage is most acute among the families of those who lost loved ones in the train that was packed with college students heading back to studies in Thessaloniki from a February Carnival period in Athens, many victims incinerated.

“The blame runs all the way through the leadership and down to the people who were on the spot,” said Evan Vlachos, who lost his 34-year-old brother, Vaios. “You’re looking for someone who did their job right, for something that worked – and there is a complete collapse.”

After the crash, the site was covered with stones, which prevented collection of what could have been critical evidence, and no one in government saying who gave the order to do that, victims’ relatives saying they will and will reveal it in court.

Nikos Plakias, who lost two daughters in the crash, found some of their body parts eight months later in a separate area where debris and rubble had been moved.

“They were in a hurry to change the picture simply to change public opinion, to make the matter look closed as soon as possible,” said Vlachos, attributing it to the approach of a national election.

The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is investigating too as the tragedy involves European Union funded contracts for safety measures not fully implemented, but the government has put up a stone wall.

OUR HANDS ARE TIED

Under Greek law, only Parliament can investigate alleged misconduct by former ministers, which EPPO said contravenes EU law. It appealed to the European Commission, headed by President Ursula von der Leyen, a friend of Mitsotakis.

Mitsotakis told the news site that the criticized justice system is working in this case and that there are limits to what he can do. “There are also constitutional constraints … “We’re at the limit of what our constitution allows us to do.”

But POLITICO noted that “Greek media have revealed that conversations between the train driver and the station master from the night of the accident were stitched together and were offered to pro-government media to create the impression the accident was due entirely to human error.”

Maria Karystianou, head of the association of the families, told the European Parliament to which they appealed that, “the crime … demonstrates in the worst way the corruption in the railways as part of a more general corrupt system.”

The spying scandal that saw EYP admit monitoring the phones of 15,745 people – including some ministers – was excoriated by PASOK Socialist leader Nikos Androulakis – who had his phone bugged and an attempt made to install spyware.

“The saga has since morphed into a sprawling espionage thriller in which Predator, a highly invasive form of spyware, was discovered on dozens of phones belonging to ministers, military chiefs, journalists, and business people. It also involved the illegal export of software to dictatorial regimes,” the site said.

“There is great disappointment regarding the judicial investigation, especially when we realized how much evidence the journalistic investigation uncovered that proved the connection between the spy service, the prime minister’s office and Predator was ignored,” said Eliza Triantafyllou, a reporter for the Greek investigative website Inside Story.

“The question that arises is who will ultimately protect Greek journalists from a state that considers them a national danger and monitors them with every available method just for doing their job?” she asked.

Triantafyllou and her colleague Tasos Talloglou revealed they had been placed under physical surveillance while reporting the scandal and another journalist, Thanasis Koukakis – investigating the government – found Predator on his phone.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who was targeted 11 times by Predator, said he expected and welcomed being monitored by his government. “So what? I didn’t even break a sweat. This obsession is becoming monotonously tiresome,” he said.

Mitsotakis said he had acted, his government later barring the sale or use of Predator but it also insisted that it was not behind its use and whomever was still hasn’t been found.

“We changed the law with a big, different system,” he told POLITICO. “I would go as far as saying, possibly even at the expense of our national security capabilities. But it is the way things have to happen. When you have a problem, you have to be much stricter in terms of procedures,” he added.