Protesters hold black balloons during a silent demonstration in front of the Parliament in Athens, Greece March 3, 2023. YORGOS KARAHALIS / AP
As night falls this Friday, March 3, an unsettling silence descends on Syntagma Square in central Athens. Nearly 4,000 people hold up black balloons and candles to pay tribute to the victims of Tuesday night’s violent train collision near Larissa in central Greece. “It’s a quiet vigil… But it’s just the beginning, the anger and fury of the world is likely to explode quickly,” predicts Vassilis, who is not recovering from the tragic deaths of at least fifty-seven people in the “worst train” disaster, the country has ever seen”. Among the victims are many students from Thessaloniki (North), who returned from Athens after a long weekend. “No one can digest that they were children and this accident could have been avoided,” he continues 50-year-old He also admits that he only took this train line once in his life, which had a “bad reputation”.
Three days after the tragedy, the revelations about the ailing state of a railway network that has been steadily deteriorating since the economic crisis (2010-2018), the lack of a modern signaling system, the multiple warnings from railway unions and network experts unheard failures leave a bitter taste in the mouth. Neither the blinkers, nor the traffic lights, nor the electronic traffic control worked, the station managers didn’t even have walkie-talkies with which they could communicate. The Larissa station manager was inexperienced, according to state broadcaster ERT, having only received three months of training before being appointed to the post.
The 59-year-old admitted negligence. Accused in particular of “negligent manslaughter” and “negligent bodily harm”, he has to be heard in court on Saturday. But for the Greeks it was “not just human error,” “it wasn’t an accident, it was a crime,” as they have been chanting at the numerous demonstrations across the country for the past three days. “The state should have modernized the network. He bears full responsibility,” says Evgenia Theodosopoulou. The pensioner had acquaintances who rode this train. She lets a few tears flow. The seemingly peaceful rally ended with Molotov cocktails and stone throwing at security forces.
“Delays” and “chronic pathologies”
On Thursday, March 2, Greek government spokesman Ioannis Oikonomou acknowledged “chronic pathologies” in the rail network and acknowledged “delays” in modernizing the railways, despite the fact that the European Commission has paid Greece 700 million euros since 2014, to develop sixteen railway projects.
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