Demonstrations are mounting, four days after the train crash that mourned Greece. A new demonstration is planned for Sunday morning in Athens, which must bring together students and railway workers. On Friday night, 3,000 people gathered in the capital for a demonstration in which police used tear gas and stun grenades against a group of protesters, who threw stones at them and set garbage cans on fire. Police had briefly used tear gas earlier in Thessaloniki, where a similar number of protesters were marching.
The anger is directed primarily against the Greek railway company Hellenic Train. The word “assassin” was painted in red letters on the window of the company’s Athens headquarters on Friday morning, where more than 5,000 people gathered. The company has been accused of numerous negligences and shortcomings that led to this disaster, which authorities have dubbed a “national tragedy” and angering Greece.
“The greatest tragedy in our history”
Police said 700 were also among the demonstrators in Larissa, the city in the center of the country closest to the scene of the accident, and 500 in Patras, a university town in the Peloponnese. “We are witnessing the greatest tragedy in our history,” the management of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, which is the largest in northern Greece with more than 5,000 students, told the AFP news agency. Nine students from this university died.
In Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city, where many victims are studying, young people are demanding accountability and the truth despite the government’s mea culpa over the “chronic” rail network failures that led to the crash. “Our dead are their profits. We will not forget you,” proclaims a banner at the main entrance of the Ministry of Agriculture.
“We are filled with anger and cannot accept that such a tragic event could happen in 2023, in which dozens of people died, including many fellow students,” said Student Union President Angelos Thomopoulos that most universities remained closed on Friday .
Station master faces life imprisonment
On Friday morning, the Greek police searched the Larissa station to look for the causes of the tragedy. The 59-year-old station master, who admitted responsibility for the accident, is due to be heard by the Larissa courts on Saturday. He faces a life sentence if proven guilty. Media outlets, including public broadcaster ERT, have highlighted his inexperience, saying he had been appointed to the post just 40 days ago after being employed by the Ministry of Education and completing three months of training.
According to a legal source, the ongoing investigation aims to “possibly initiate criminal proceedings against members of the management of the Hellenic Train company”. She confirmed that at the Larissa station “audio files, documents and other evidence that could help clarify the case and assign criminal responsibility” were seized.
The judiciary and the population want to understand why a train carrying 342 passengers and 10 railway workers was authorized to use the same single track connecting Athens and Thessaloniki as a freight convoy. The trains did not run on Thursday and Friday after the railway unions called for a strike. The call was extended for another 48 hours on Friday.