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The collision of two trains that left 57 dead on March 1 has shocked the Hellenic nation, which is demanding responsibilities among the political class for the deterioration of its tracks and the train system. Students, teachers, doctors and drivers of other means of transport in the country have joined the strike that the train drivers have been leading for days. Police fired tear gas at protesters in the country’s capital, Athens, on Wednesday.
Greece lives a day of general strike in multiple sectors to demand political responsibilities and action after suffering the biggest railway accident in its history on March 1, in which 57 people died. Society is shocked and outraged by what they consider to be a consequence of decades of state neglect and lack of investment in this means of transport.
A large part of the public and transport sectors joined the strike that began in the railway sector on March 2, completely paralyzing train connections throughout the country.
Athens woke up collapsed because bus and metro drivers joined the rail strike. And in other provinces, the ship captains in charge of offering transportation between the thousands of islands that this country has decided not to set sail.
The education sector also wanted to be part of these efforts, since a large part of the deceased were university students who traveled from Athens to Thessaloniki – the second city in the country – after spending a weekend with their families.
Since noon, the largest concentration has taken place in the capital, Athens, where tens of thousands of people have marched through its streets with the aim of ending in front of the Greek Parliament. During the march, some of the most repeated slogans during these days became visible, such as “their policies, our dead” or “I’ll call you later.”
In addition, requests for the resignation of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis have multiplied.
In Athens, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters. While a group of the participants in the protests threw stones and Molotov cocktails.
A massive call for the Greek government to take responsibility
The main objective of these mobilizations is for the Government to act and improve the security conditions of the thousands of kilometers of roads that Greece has, which for years have been the object of state abandonment. The greatest political responsibility has been taken by the former Minister of Transport, Konstantinos Karamanlis, who decided to resign after the incident. However, this is insufficient for society.
The accident occurred when two trains, one freight and one passenger, collided head-on after an error caused them to run on the same track.
Initially, the government of the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis attributed the crash to “human error”, however, after days of controversy, last Sunday it apologized to the victims and assured that “behind the human error, there may also be the deterioration of the infrastructures”.
Cuts due to the debt crisis, the key factor in the stagnation of the country
Greece was the European country hardest hit by the 2008 crisis. This nation experienced years of austere policies due to its foreign debt and had to be bailed out twice by the rest of the European Union countries. His situation reached such a point that the question of his leaving the organization at the worst moment was even raised.
The measures imposed from Brussels revolved around cuts in various public expenses and the privatization of state companies, including the railway. This situation means that Greece, unlike other European countries, still has a railway infrastructure from the last century, far from the high-speed systems that are observed in nations such as France, Germany or Spain.
The main railway union in the country, ADEDI, demanded to meet as soon as possible with the new head of the Transport portfolio with the aim of “stopping the privatization process” and “imposing security to guarantee that an accident of similar proportions is not repeated”. , according to his spokesman.
The accident also comes at a delicate political moment. The parliamentary elections that will decide the new prime minister are scheduled for April 9 and in them Mitsotakis and his New Democracy party may be the main losers.
Some sources indicate that the government is considering delaying the elections to May because of the accident, but some opposition parties, such as the leftist Syriza, have refused.
For its part, the European Union has begun to hold meetings with the Greek Executive with the aim of studying investments in new railway plans and infrastructures that can guarantee the safety of travelers. A development that will likely take years.
With EFE, AP and Reuters
