Thousands of protesters gathered in Greece on Sunday to demand justice for the 57 victims of the country’s deadliest rail crash in 2023.
Demonstrations began in 97 cities in Greece and 13 places abroad. Marchers in the largest Greek cities of Athens and Thessaloniki had 30,000 and 16,000 protesters, respectively.
“What is happening today is fantastic,” Pavlos Aslanidis, the father of one victim, told media in Thessaloniki. “This is a global fight now,” he said, referring to protests abroad.
“My son’s soul must be rejoicing… I am confident that we will win. We have set the kingdom against us, but we will win.”
protest scenes
Protests across Greece were mostly peaceful, apart from incidents of people attacking police forces with stones and fire, and officers responding with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. However, these incidents only lasted a few minutes.
DW’s Sophia Kleftaki, who was at the demonstration in Athens, said one person was injured in the clashes.
The demonstration blocked off much of central Athens.
Ilias Papangelis, whose 18-year-old daughter was among those killed, told the crowd of protesters, “Two years after the tragedy, no one has been punished, no one is in jail.”
“This has been the most mafia-like cover-up operation,” Maria Christianou, whose daughter died in the crash, told Athens protesters marching outside the parliament building on Sunday.
Protesters held placards and chanted, “I have no oxygen” – the final words that left Caristianou heartbroken by her daughter, who called the European emergency number 112 to report the incident. Many in the crowd chanted “Murderer!” Raised slogans.
Other banners read: “We do not forget, we do not forgive” and “Justice, do not forget.” Some people accused the government of having blood on its hands.
More protests were held in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Helsinki, Nicosia, Reykjavik and Valletta, Malta.
about the disaster
The accident occurred on February 28, 2023 when a passenger train collided head-on with a goods train after both were mistakenly placed on the same track.
Many rumors have surfaced regarding the cause of the scale of the disaster.
Families of the victims and protesters believe the government is hiding evidence and conducting an opaque investigation while trying to blame the disaster on the station master.
Many believe that about 30 of the 57 victims survived the initial high-speed crash, but died in a fire caused by hazardous chemicals in the freight train.
The leak of a report funded by the victims’ families appears to confirm that the freight train was carrying an illegal load of explosive chemicals.
Greeks are still awaiting trial over the disaster, a process pushed back by lengthy investigations, delays in reports by technical experts and even new additions to the list of witnesses from groups of survivors and victims. Has gone.
MK/WD (AFP, Reuters, AP)