Tempi disaster investigation widely seen as a cover-up for infrastructure neglect
~ Kit Dimou ~
Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters flooded the streets of Greece last weekend, responding to a call from families of the 57 victims of the Tempi train crash in February 2023. While the largest crowds were in the centre of Athens and Thessaloniki, rural towns, villages and islands also saw their largest demonstrations in years.
In Athens, after the demo ended in Parliament Square, clashes erupted—involving not only the sizeable anarchist black bloc but people of all ages and backgrounds, who threw rocks and flares at police.
The official investigation is widely seen as a cover-up, having ignored suspicions of corruption as well as the underlying neglect and de-funding of infrastructures by the neoliberal Mitsotakis government. The disaster occurred while the government was working to make it illegal for drivers to strike over safety concerns, and avoiding its EU duty to set up a permanent board of investigation for rail accidents.
De-funding of public services has also been blamed for the weak response to the wildfires in the country last summer.
Just before the start of the Athens protest, a gathering of Serbian residents mourned the death of 15 rail passengers in Novi Sad last year, when the concrete canopy of the main railway station collapsed onto the busy pavement below. That disaster is also publicly attributed to outsourcing and cost-cutting.
Further mass demonstrations are expected in a month, on the two-year anniversary of the crash.
Top image: Demonstration in Thessaloniki
