The Greeks conduct mass protests requiring justice after a train tragedy

The Greeks have been holding their largest protests for years and participated in a common strike to mark the second anniversary of a rail accident, which left 57 dead and dozens of more wreck.

In the center of Athens alone, the crowd was placed on hundreds of thousands, and in Thessaloniki, Larissa and Joanin, large numbers and many other cities were observed.

“For those of us who had children on this train, part of our souls stayed there and will never come back,” says Maria Karisianu, head of the Tempi Victims Association, whose daughter Marty was among the killed in the tragedy.

The investigation concluded on Thursday that the incident was caused by human error, poor maintenance and insufficient staff.

By the early afternoon, a group of hooded men began to throw rocks and gasoline bombs at the police, colliding with the emotional atmosphere close to parliament.

Police at Riot Gear respond with tear gas and water cannon, while collisions continue for some time around the center of the capital, in Ermo, Omonia and Propilaia.

Dozens of people were arrested and the troubles fell again when the evening fell.

Violence cast a shadow on the huge scale of protests in almost every city in Greece.

“I am here in memory of the people who were killed in the train crash. We want justice,” said 13-year-old Dimitris, who came with his father Petros Polizos at the biggest rally in Greece, at Syntagma Square in the center of Athens.

It was on the night of February 28, 2023. A passenger train full of students collided with a train head near the Tempi Gorge in Central Greece.

The report of the Greek Air and Railway Investigation Authority of Greece has warned that the failures of the safety set out by the crash have not yet been addressed. “These children were killed because the train was not safe,” said the head of power Christos Papadimitriu.

Tempi’s railway crash shocked the Greeks, with many accusing their conservative government of doing too little to shed light on the causes of the tragedy. There is a broad conviction that the government has sought to conceal the role of high -ranking employees.

The whole center of Athens was crowded with people of all ages and all spheres of life, with many saying that they were attending a demonstration for the first time in their lives.

Dmitry and his father were among many protesters in Athens, wearing T -shirts that read “I have no oxygen to the end”, citing the 57 killed.

The rallies are organized in 346 cities, in Greece in Thessaloniki, Ioanin, Patras and Larissa, as well as in cities in Europe, including Brussels, Rome and several cities in the UK.

The passenger service from Athens to Thessaloniki was crowded with students who returned to the university after a holiday for a Greek Orthodox post when the train collided with a train of goods on the same track outside Larissa.

Seconds later, a fiery ball almost completely destroyed the first two carriages of the train.

In Athens, protesters held posters that read “My child, call me when you arrive” and “without concealment”.

62 -year -old Dina Gazi held white balloons with the names of those killed in the incident. “I firmly believe that the government is hiding responsible for the accident,” she told the BBC. “We require all evidence to appear.”

The shops in the center took their lids, many of them with messages of sympathy and support in their windows, and ordinary people did not go to work.

The schools were closed, flights and trains were canceled, and the only public transport that still works was to take people to and from Sintagma Square.

Taxi drivers have promised to take people to the protest unusable.

In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitotakis said that everyone’s thoughts were with the families of the 57 victims who died, as well as the wounded and those who survived but carried the memory of that night.

“Nothing will ever be the same,” he added, talking about “fatal human mistakes combined with chronic defects of the state.”

For almost six years, this has been the first time since Mitotakis has been chosen to be in such a difficult political position. He promised to move “more dynamic and fast” to lead to modern and safe trains.

For the Greeks, this mass protest was unusual as it is not related to the economy and their personal finances.

The investigation on Thursday found that millions of euros were paid to cover the installation of rail safety systems, but that the project remains incomplete due to corruption and bureaucracy.

Relatives of the killed in the crash believe the train train may have carried smuggling on behalf of a ring smuggling.

“It is impossible to determine exactly what is caused (Fireball), but the simulations and expert reports show the possible presence of unknown fuel so far,” the report settled.

“Serious information has disappeared as the accident is not sealed,” experts say, increasing public anger and intensifying speculation of concealment.

Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis denied that he had a concealment and said the claim was not supported by the report.

Additional claims have emerged that suggest that orders have been given to clear the site of the crash and the “landfills” it days after the disaster, which means that the evidence has disappeared. But Marinakis said the investigation report came to the conclusion that no political directive was given to change the scene.

As he stood in the midst of the protest on Friday on Sintagma Square, Pavlos Aslanidis spoke about the death of his 26-year-old son Dimitris in the Tempi incident.

“I don’t know how I find the strength to stand,” he told the BBC.

“My son gives me strength. Otherwise, I would not be here today, requiring justice.”