Thousands of people across Greece yesterday demonstrated in solidarity with victims of the country’s worst train tragedy, which claimed 57 lives in 2023 and rattled the government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
With a long-awaited trial into the disaster looming next month, unanswered questions remain about the accident and the ensuing investigation, which victims’ relatives said was deficient and left state officials largely untouched.
Most of those killed in the crash on Feb. 28, 2023, were young students aboard a passenger locomotive carrying about 350 people from Athens to Thessaloniki that hit a freight train in the dead of the night.
Photo: AFP
The crash was “not a stroke of bad luck,” an association of victims’ relatives said. “It was an expression of an inhuman policy that, in the face of profitability and profit, does not even take human life into account, a policy that breeds and covers up crimes.”
More than 300,000 people rallied to mark last year’s anniversary, one of the biggest demonstrations the country has seen since the decade-long financial crisis, which began in late 2009.
This year was to see demonstrations in more than 70 towns and cities across Greece.
Unions went on strikes, while stores in Athens were urged to close.
The two trains had run on the same track for more than 10 minutes without triggering any alarm, laying bare the parlous state of the Greek railway network’s security fail-safes — despite EU grants for their modernization.
European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kovesi said the accident could have been avoided if an EU-funded railway signaling project had been completed on time.
The victims’ families have protested that valuable clues were lost when the crash site was bulldozed soon after the accident, sparking allegations the government was literally trying to bury the evidence.
Several parents have also demanded tests to determine whether their children were killed by the collision, or by a fire that broke out afterwards, with one going on a hunger strike last year.
Earlier this month, experts appointed by the families said the passenger train had poorly-insulated seating that enabled the fire to spread.
Despite the disaster, Mitsotakis comfortably won re-election just months later, and went on to defeat two votes of no confidence on the issue.
However, anger continues to simmer, increasing support for smaller opposition parties, including one headed by a leading lawyer for the accident victims.
The mother of another victim, Maria Karystianou, has announced plans for a new party.
“We don’t just want to remain a protest movement. We really want to see some things change in the country,” Karystianou said.
Nearly 40 people are to go on trial on March 23, including railway executives and the station master on duty that night. They risk prison sentences of up to 20 years.
Two former Greek ministers, including the former minister of infrastructure and transport, were also referred to justice by parliament, but face only misdemeanor charges at present.
The European prosecutor has separately charged more than 30 people with various offenses, including subsidy fraud.