Demonstrations are multiplying, four days after the train disaster that mourned Greece. In Athens, a new demonstration, which must bring together students and railway employees, is scheduled for Sunday morning. Friday evening, a demonstration brought together 3,000 people in 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. Police had also briefly used tear gas earlier in Thessaloniki where a similar number of protesters 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. The company is blamed for numerous negligence and shortcomings that led to this disaster, described as a “national tragedy” by the authorities, and which upset Greece.
“The greatest tragedy in our history”
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, 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 AFP. 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 which 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.
“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.
Station master faces life in prison
Friday morning, the Greek police had raided the Larissa station, looking for the causes of the tragedy. The station master, 59, who admitted responsibility for the accident, must be heard by the courts in Larissa. 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 training of three month.
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 clarify the case and assign criminal responsibility were seized” in Larissa station.
Justice and the population want to understand why a train carrying 342 passengers and ten railway workers was authorized to use the same single track linking Athens to Thessaloniki as a freight convoy. The trains did not run on Thursday and Friday after a call for a strike by the railway unions. The call was renewed on Friday for another 48 hours.
