It is all of Greece that is bruised by an unprecedented human tragedy on its territory. Between pain and anger, the Greeks will demonstrate again on Friday March 3, the third day of national mourning observed in a country traumatized by the train disaster which killed 57 people, including many young students.
In the capital and in all the cities of Greece, the population is called to demonstrate in silence on Friday evening on the theme “We mourn our dead, we ask for the truth”. The fury of the Greeks is not expected to dry up despite the government’s mea culpa over the “chronic” failures of the rail network that led to the tragedy, one of the most serious in Greece.
Railway workers are also called to strike on Friday, for the second day in a row. The confederation of rail unions denounces “the lack of respect that governments have shown over time towards the Greek railways, which has led” to this disaster. The Greeks are grieving in the image of this Greek flag, with white stripes broken like dismembered wagons, which is displayed in a black background on social networks.
“We are living an indescribable tragedy, we are mourning the unjust loss of dozens of people, mostly young people, we are asking for the truth,” read the call for the silent protest on Friday evening. The population wants to understand why a train carrying 342 passengers and 10 railway workers was authorized to use the same single track as a freight convoy.
The trains indeed circulated for several kilometers on the same track connecting Athens to Thessaloniki (north), the two largest Greek cities, before colliding head-on Tuesday shortly before midnight, causing the death of at least 57 people, according to the police. “Why does Greece only learn after the tragedies? Ta Nea (left) newspaper front page asks Friday.
In Thessaloniki, the country’s second city, some 2,000 demonstrators protested Thursday evening, their faces serious and stern, occasionally letting their anger burst with stone throwing and Molotov cocktails. “This is not a mistake but a crime”, wrote in a Thursday the Journal of the editors (left). “The dead of Tempé demand answers”, headlined the liberal Kathimerini, in reference to the place, near the city of Larissa (center), where the deadly collision occurred.
Brought to justice, the 59-year-old station master, prosecuted for “negligent homicide” and for causing “bodily harm”, admitted his “error”. The government spokesman assured Thursday that the “error” had “been admitted by the station master himself” and his lawyer confirmed that he “acknowledged what he had done”. He faces life imprisonment if proven guilty.
Media, including the public television channel ERT, however highlighted his lack of experience since, according to their information, he had been appointed to this post only forty days ago after having worked at the Ministry of Education and followed three months training for his new duties.
Larissa station was raided Friday morning by police as part of the investigation, a police spokesman told Agence France-Presse. “It’s still ongoing, it’s part of the investigation. The police have seized […] all the documents that can help the investigation, “said this spokesperson while the railway accident is attributed to an error by the station master of Larissa, the town closest to the place. of the crash.
The trains did not run on Thursday after a call for a strike by the confederation bringing together the railway unions. “Unfortunately, our constant demands for more permanent staff, better training, but most importantly 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 lack of safety on the line where the collision occurred. “All (signalling) is done manually. It’s been since the year 2000 that the systems haven’t worked,” he fumed.
The union representatives of the Hellenic Train railway company sounded the alarm in this regard three weeks ago. “We’re not going to wait for the accident to happen to see those responsible shed crocodile tears,” they warned.
Konstantinos Hasiotis, an expert, for his part regretted with Agence France-Presse the delays in the installation of the PTS (Positive Train Control) electronic safety radar system.
Hundreds of people protested Thursday evening outside the Athens headquarters of Hellenic Train, a company 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).
Residents of Larissa had also demonstrated, carrying banners that read: “Privatization kills”. “The delays (in the modernization of the railways) have their origins in the chronic pathologies of the Greek public sector, in decades of weakness,” government spokesman Yannis Oikonomou admitted on Thursday.
The new Minister of Transport, Giorgos Gerapetritis, apologized to the families of the victims, while making “a complete self-criticism of the political system and the state”. The former minister had resigned the day before.
In the midst of controversy, the media published a letter from the former head of the European Rail Traffic System (ERTMS) in Greece, Christos Katsioulis, in which he noted “mismanagement” of the application of “signalling contracts”. on certain parts of the network.
“Until 2010, there was some modernization of the signaling of the railway network but, during the financial crisis, the safety systems started to break down,” recalled Panagiotis Terezakis, an adviser to the railways administration. of Greek iron.