The death of a passenger thrown into the sea by members of a ferry crew last week sparked an outcry in Greece. Merchant Marine Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis announced his resignation on Monday. This 36-year-old passenger was pushed into the water while trying to board a ship leaving the port of Piraeus, near Athens.
Miltiadis Varvitsiotis will be replaced by Christos Stylianidis, MP and former minister in the previous right-wing government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis (2021-2023), government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said on Monday during a press conference.
“The murder of Antonis Kargiotis by members of the Blue Horizon crew shocked us all,” Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said in his resignation letter posted on social media. He again asked for “forgiveness” for this incident and stressed that “in recent days he has been the target of an attack.” Some accused him of “putting the victim and the perpetrators on the same level of criminality.” he refuses.
A statement that doesn’t hold up
A video that went viral last Wednesday showed the victim running just in time to get to the ferry in the port of Piraeus while the ramp was still lowered. But members of the crew stopped him and eventually Antonis Kargiotis was pushed by one of them, causing him to lose his balance and fall into the sea. Despite the screams of passengers who saw the passenger drowning, the ferry leaves the port as planned for Heraklion, Crete, instead of coming to his aid.
In a first statement on the private television channel Open last Wednesday, the minister pointed out that “there are those who cry for the unfortunate and those who cry for the people who work for a salary (…) and who are now accused of murder.”, referring to the four crew members who were later arrested by the authorities. This declaration was described as “inhumane” and heavily criticized by left-wing opposition parties. The main opposition party immediately called for “the condemnation of this statement by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.”
Under pressure, the minister returned to this statement on Wednesday evening and emphasized that this sentence was “wrong”. He then assured on X (formerly Twitter) that “Antonis (Kargiotis) and his family are the main victims of this tragedy”.
Two men in custody
The resignation of Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, 54, also a member of the ruling right-wing New Democracy, comes hours after the courts ordered the temporary detention of the captain of the Blue Horizon on charges of “endangerment” at sea and a member of the crew Accused of murder. Two other crew members were also charged with complicity in the murder.
This is the second resignation of a minister since Kyriakos Mitsotakis was voted back to power in June for a four-year term. During Greece’s devastating wildfires in July, Citizens Protection Minister Notis Mitarakis resigned because he was on vacation while Greece was in a state of war amid the fires.