Tens of thousands of people again took to the streets in Greece on Wednesday as anger spreads, with some now calling for the government to resign after the train disaster that left 57 people dead. The country is also almost at a standstill due to a call to stop work in much of the public and private sectors.
In Athens, at least 40,000 people marched in the middle of the day, according to a police spokeswoman, while there were 15,000 in Thessaloniki, the country’s second city. In the Athenian procession flourished placards calling for the resignation of the government of conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose management of this accident is considered calamitous.
“This government must go”
“This government must leave,” said Niki Siouta, a 54-year-old civil engineer, met by AFP in one of the demonstrations in the capital. “I am here to pay tribute to the dead but also to express my anger and my fed up”, she added while the dilapidation of the railway network, property of the State, and the shortcomings in the system security have been singled out to explain this drama which upsets the whole country.
“It’s not an accident, it’s politics”, also proclaimed a leaflet from the Athens Students’ Union. “It is this same government which does not give money for education and for hospitals”, was also indignant Thanassis Oikonomou, a union representative of the Athens bus company. Many Greeks are expressing bitterness at what they see as a decline in public services since the austerity plans imposed by Greece’s creditors to pull the country out of the doldrums.
Doctors and drivers join the processions
In Athens where several parades, some marked by violence, have already taken place since the train accident, banners also indicated: “Call me when you arrive”. This slogan, which refers to the message that Greek parents usually send to their children, has spread in rallies and schoolyards. Greece is also almost at a standstill. No maritime connection is ensured between the mainland and the islands and the trains remained in station for the eighth day in a row.
Public service employees also walked off the job for 24 hours at the call of the sector confederation, as did primary school teachers, doctors and bus and metro drivers, joined in processions by students.
Violent clashes
In Athens and Thessaloniki, violent clashes broke out on Sunday between police and demonstrators on the sidelines of a rally of 12,000 people. Many victims were young people and students. In recent days, the images of collapsed parents burying their child, often broadcast live by television channels, have helped to upset the country a little more.
Without any alert being triggered, two trains, one passenger, the other freight, traveled for several kilometers on the same track before colliding head-on on February 28 around 11:30 p.m. (9:30 p.m. GMT), in Tempé , near the town of Larissa, 350 km north of the capital. In what authorities have called a “national tragedy”, Greeks have been holding their leaders to account.
An accident that could have been avoided
The head of government, who faces general elections in the spring, is crushed to have a few hours after the disaster assured that it was “a tragic human error”. However, the railway unions recalled with anger that they had sounded the alarm on the serious technical failures on this line long before the tragedy, without having been heard. While promising compensation to the families of the victims, Transport Minister Giorgos Gerepetridis admitted that the accident could have been avoided if the installation of the “global remote management system had been completed”.
The Larissa station master, who admitted responsibility for the accident, was remanded in custody. According to Greek media, proceedings should be initiated in the coming days against other officials of the rail network. Contrite, the Prime Minister asked forgiveness on Sunday from the families of the victims, a mea culpa considered very late for many. He also asked for help from the European Union, which dispatched the executive director of the European Agency for Railways ERA Josef Doppelbauer and other experts to Athens on Wednesday.
The anger is also directed at the railway company Hellenic Train, which responded to the accusations by recalling that the responsibility for the maintenance of the network fell to the Greek public company OSE.