More than 2,000 people observed a moment of silence this Friday in front of Parliament in Athens in connection with the 57 deaths in Tuesday’s train crash, an accident that caused horror but also protests demanding responses from the Greek authorities.
In a country that holds three days of national mourning, and after this minute of remembrance, a protest rally under the motto “We mourn our dead, we demand the truth” began, with demonstrators heading to the headquarters of the Greek Hellenic private railway company. A train accused of numerous negligences and shortcomings, which are allegedly at the root of this accident that shakes Greece.
In the Greek capital, demonstrators carried black balloons in memory of those who died, including numerous students who were unable to withstand the collision of two trains.
Also this Friday, most Greek universities were closed.
“This crime should not be hidden under the carpet” or “Send me a message when you arrive”, alluding to the testimony of a mother whose son died in an accident, were some of the phrases on the banners displayed at the protests. .
On the third day of national mourning, Greeks are demanding answers from the authorities, despite the government acknowledging “chronic” failures in the rail network that led to the accident.
According to the Athens daily Efimerida ton Syntakton, after the privatization of the Greek railway network during the “debt crisis” and the intervention of the international “troika” of creditors in the first half of the 2010s, neither the government nor the entrepreneurs agreed to invest in the reconstruction of the outdated railway system.
The newspaper indicated that the carriages were purchased from Switzerland, which made them available as it found them problematic. The same newspaper mentioned that the accident was the result of a chaotic privatization of the railway network, given that it was not essentially a human error, as the conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis suggested.
The title also claimed that the father-in-law of Georgios Herapetritis — the new transport minister appointed by Mitsotakis following the resignation of his predecessor Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of the former conservative Greek prime minister of the same name — is the holder of all Hellenic Train contracts.
The newspaper also pointed out that the son of the prosecutor general in charge of the investigation is the lawyer for Georgios Gerapetritis, who resigned after the disaster, while the government is trying to place almost full responsibility on the head of the Larissa railway station. who was subsequently arrested.
At the same time, a judicial source cited by the AFP news agency indicated that the ongoing investigation is aimed at “initiating, if necessary, criminal prosecution against members of the management of the Hellenic Train company.”
The same source confirmed that “audio files, documents and other evidence that could help clarify this case and impose criminal liability were seized” at the Larisa branch after a police search.
This announced operation is intended to determine the “possible causes” of Tuesday’s violent collision on the same train line that ran between Athens and Thessaloniki (North) and the composition of the goods.
In Larisa, the closest city to the crash site, and in Patras, a university town in the Peloponnese, hundreds of demonstrators also gathered to protest.
A demonstration is scheduled for this Friday afternoon in Thessaloniki, the country’s second largest city, where many of the victims followed their studies.
For the second day in a row, the strike in the railway sector continues, with the trade union confederation denouncing “governments’ disrespect for the Greek railways over time”, which the collective believes “caused this catastrophe”.
The people of Greece want to understand why a train carrying 342 passengers in ten cars was allowed to use the same single track where the freight train circulated in the opposite direction.
On Thursday night, a demonstration took place in Thessaloniki, ending in clashes with the police.
Before the trial, the head of the station Larisa, accused of “negligent homicide” and “bodily injury”, admitted his “mistake”. The railway worker faces life imprisonment if his guilt is proven.
A number of media, including public television ERT, pointed to the official’s inexperience, due to the fact that he was appointed to the post only 40 days ago, after working in the Ministry of Education and a three-month course.
Industry unions have long called for permanent staffing, better training and, in particular, the introduction of modern safety technologies, but these demands have never been met.
In this regard, Kostas Genidunia, president of the railway conductors union OSE, questioned the lack of safety on the line where the accident occurred.
“All signaling is carried out manually. Since 2000, the systems have not been working,” he said.
Three weeks ago the union representatives of the Hellenic Train company sounded the alarm.
“We cannot wait until an accident occurs to see the perpetrators shed crocodile tears,” they warned at the time, but to no avail.
In Athens, hundreds of people also demonstrated Thursday night in front of the headquarters of Hellenic Train, a company acquired in 2017 as part of a privatization program demanded by Greece’s international creditors during the “debt crisis” between 2009 and 2018.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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