A vast movement of anger took hold of the streets in Greece. Many demonstrations were held on Friday March 3 after the train disaster that killed 57 people in Larissa, where the station master, who admitted responsibility for the accident, is to be heard in court on Saturday.
In Athens, a new mobilization, which must bring together students and railway employees, is scheduled for Sunday at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. in Paris), in Syntagma Square opposite the Parliament.
Friday evening, a demonstration brought together 3,000 people in the city center of the capital where the police used tear gas and stun grenades against a group of demonstrators who threw stones at them and set fire to garbage cans. The police had also briefly used tear gas a little earlier in Thessaloniki (north) where a similar number of demonstrators marched.
The anger is above all directed against the Greek railway company Hellenic Train. The word “Assassins” was painted Friday morning in red letters on the window of the Athens headquarters of this company in front of which more than 5,000 people gathered, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse. The company is implicated for numerous negligence and shortcomings that led to this disaster, described as a “national tragedy” by the authorities, and which upsets Greece.
The demonstrators were also 700 in Larissa, the city closest to the scene of the accident in the center of the country, and 500 in Patras, a university town in the Peloponnese (southwest), according to the police.
“We are living the greatest tragedy in our history,” the management of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which, with more than 5,000 students, is the largest in northern Greece, told Agence France-Presse. Nine students from this university died.
In Thessaloniki, the second largest city in the country where many victims were studying, young people are demanding accountability and the truth despite the government’s mea culpa on the “chronic” failures of the rail network that led to the accident. “Our dead are their profits. We will not forget you,” proclaims a banner at the main entrance to the Department of Agriculture.
In Athens, demonstrators held up black balloons in memory of the victims during the day and unfurled a giant black banner. “We are filled with rage and cannot accept that such a tragic event could occur in 2023, with dozens of lives lost, including many fellow students,” said student union president Angelos Thomopoulos. that most universities remained closed on Friday.
Friday morning, the Greek police had raided the Larissa station, looking for the causes of the tragedy. The 59-year-old station master, who admitted responsibility for the accident, is due to appear in court in Larissa on Saturday. He faces life imprisonment if proven guilty.
Media, including the public television channel ERT, have highlighted his inexperience since, according to them, he had been appointed to this post only 40 days ago after a job at the Ministry of Education and a three-month training .
According to a judicial source, the ongoing investigation aims “to initiate criminal proceedings, if necessary, against members of the management of the company” Hellenic Train. She confirmed that “audio files, documents and other evidence that may help to clarify the case and assign criminal responsibilities were seized” in Larissa train station.
Justice and the population want to understand why a train carrying 342 passengers and ten railway workers was authorized to take the same single track linking Athens to Thessaloniki (north) as a convoy of goods.
The trains did not run on Thursday and Friday after a call for a strike by the railway unions. The call was extended Friday for another 48 hours. “Unfortunately, our constant demands for more permanent staff, better training but above all the adoption of modern security technologies have all been thrown in the trash for good,” these organizations lamented.
The president of the OSE train drivers’ union, Kostas Genidounias, highlighted the safety breaches on the offending line. “All (signalling) is done manually. It’s been since the year 2000 that the systems haven’t worked,” he fumed. Union representatives at the Hellenic Train railway company sounded the alarm three weeks ago.
“We’re not going to wait for the accident to happen to see those responsible shed crocodile tears,” they warned. Hellenic Train was bought in 2017 by the Italian public group Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane (FS) as part of the privatization program demanded by Greece’s creditors during the economic crisis (2009-2018).