Parties blame each other
Protests and strikes after train crash in Greece
3/3/2023 7:48 am
The anger and concern after the train accident in Greece that killed 57 people is great. Railway workers are downing their jobs again, thousands of citizens are taking to the streets in Athens and Thessaloniki, and the political parties are blaming each other for the accident.
The protests in Greece are taking on ever-increasing dimensions after the serious train accident that killed at least 57 people. For the second day in a row, rail workers across the country went on a 24-hour strike, their union said. According to the fire brigade, the rescue work at the accident site in central Greece is to be completed this Friday. Coroners were trying to identify bodies using DNA tests, police said.
On Thursday evening, several thousand people in Athens and Thessaloniki took to the streets and protested against the dilapidated condition of the Greek railways, which they believe led to the accident. Autonomous threw fire bottles at the police. The situation calmed down on Friday night.
Railway workers complain about political inactivity
The protests are also taking on political dimensions. In heated talk shows, conservative and left-wing politicians accuse each other that a system that stops a train when danger is imminent and is therefore also supposed to protect against human error is out of order. Greece’s two major parties – the conservative Nea Dimokratia and the left-wing Syriza – had alternately ruled the country for the past ten years. The railway union complains that nothing has been put into practice in terms of railway safety.
The accident happened on Wednesday night. A passenger train with around 350 people on board had gotten onto a track on which a freight train was coming because of an incorrect switch setting. The responsible railway employee has already been charged with negligent homicide. His defense attorney said his client had accepted the part of the responsibility that was due to him.