In Athens
The Greeks have held their biggest protests for years and participate in the general strike to mark the second anniversary of the railway disaster, which left 57 dead and tens of more injured.
“I am here in memory of the people who died in a train collision. We demand justice,” said 13-year-old Dimitris, who came to the largest rally in Greece, Syntagma Square in the center of Athens with his father Petros Polyzos.
During the night of February 28, 2023. The passenger train full of students collided with goods near Klisura Tempi in central Greece.
The investigation on Thursday concluded that the accident was caused by a human error, poor maintenance and inadequate staff.
The Greek Air and Rail Carong Cleased investigation report warned that security failures were not yet resolved. “These children were killed because the train was not sure,” said government head Christos Papadimitriou.
The disaster shocked the Greeks, and many accused their conservative government of doing too little to shed light on the causes of the tragedy. There is a wide belief that the government sought to cover up the role of senior officials.
The whole center of Athens was full of people of all ages and all layers of life, and many said that they attended a demonstration for the first time in their lives.
By early afternoon, the tempera flared up and clashed with police. Gas bombs were thrown away and police used a tear gas.
Dmitris and his father were among many protesters in Athens, carrying T -shirts that said “I have no oxygen – justice to the end”, referring to 57 who died.
We sets are organized in 346 cities, throughout Greece in Thessaloniki, Ioannini, Patras and Larissa, as well as in cities across Europe, including Brussels, Rome and several cities in the UK.
The passenger service from Athens to Thessaloniki is full of students who returned to the university after the vacation because of the Greek Orthodox dishes when the train collided with the goods on the same track outside Larisa.
A second after that, the fiery ball almost completely destroyed the first two train carriage.
In Athens, protesters held posters reading “My child, call me when you arrive” and “without concealment.”
Dina Gazi, 62, held white balloons with the names of those who died in the accident. “I firmly believe that the Government conceals those responsible for the accident,” she told the BBC. “We demand that all evidence of appearance.”
The shop stores have decreased, many with messages of sympathy and support on their windows, and ordinary people did not go to work.
The schools were closed, flights and trains canceled, and the only public transportation that was still managed was to take people to and from Syntagma Square.
Taxi drivers promised that people would take people to protest without charge.
In a Facebook post, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that everyone’s thoughts with the family of 57 victims who died, like the wounded and those who survived, but carried the memory of that night.
“There will never be the same again,” he added, speaking of “fatal human mistakes along with the chronic shortcomings of the state.”
For almost six years, this is the first time since Mitsotakis was chosen that he was in such a difficult political position. He promised that “more dynamic and faster” would move to bring modern and safe trains.
For the Greeks, this mass protest was unusual because it was not related to the economy and their personal finances.
On Thursday, the investigation found that millions of euros were paid to cover the installation of security systems along the railway, but that the project remained incomplete due to corruption and bureaucracy.
The cousins of the dead in the collision believe that the commodity train may have carried fuel smuggling on behalf of smuggling.
“It is impossible to determine what exactly caused [the fireball]But simulations and professional reports indicate the possible presence of an unknown fuel so far, “the report said.
“Serious information disappeared because the site of the accident is not sealed,” experts say, increasing public anger and enhancing the guessing of concealment.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis denied that there had been a concealment and said that the claim was not substantiated in the report.
Further allegations came up suggesting the orders to clear the place of the collision and the “landfill” for days after the disaster, which meant that the evidence disappeared. But Marinakis said that the investigation report concluded that no political directive was given to change the scene.
As he stood in the middle of a protest on Friday at Syntagma Square, Pavlos Aslanidis spoke about the death of his 26-year-old son Dimitris in a tempo accident.
“I don’t know how I find the strength to stop,” he told the BBC.
“My son gives me strength. Otherwise, today I would not be here looking for justice.”
