Greek lawmakers voted on Thursday to set up a committee to conduct a preliminary investigation into a former transport minister who oversaw the railways prior to the country’s worst-ever train crash in 2023.

Kostas Karamanlis will be the second senior official of the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to face investigation over the disaster, which killed 57 people. Many Greeks view the crash as a symbol of years of neglect of the railways and of a continued failure by the state to address safety concerns.

Early on Thursday, in a secret vote, 154 lawmakers backed the establishment of a parliamentary panel to decide whether to lift Karamanlis’ immunity to allow him to be indicted for allegedly failing while in office to secure adequate resources for the maintenance, modernisation and smooth operation of the Greek railways.

Mitsotakis’ government, which won reelection in 2023, has 155 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament, the only Greek body that can lift politicians’ immunity and investigate them.

Opposition parties have said that a long-delayed upgrade of the trains’ safety systems could have averted the crash.

Karamanlis, who resigned after the 2023 disaster, has denied any wrongdoing.

During an 18-hour debate before the vote, Karamanlis said he did everything in his power to improve Greek railways.

“I will not hide behind any immunity or any government majority,” he said.

The Greek government survived a no-confidence vote in March after mass protests over the crash and has promised to revamp Greek railways by 2027.

Deputy Civil Protection Minister Christos Triantopoulos, who was minister for state aid at the time of the incident, also resigned from his post to support a parliamentary inquiry into the handling of the aftermath of the crash.​