More than 40,000 individuals took to the streets of Athens on Thursday to slam the federal government and voice outrage ultimately month’s prepare catastrophe that killed 57 individuals.
Television footage confirmed clashes breaking out at Syntagma Square close to the parliament in central Athens.
Police fired tear fuel and stun grenades as demonstrators tried to encompass them, hurling firebombs and rocks.
As protesters retreated, they smashed visitors lights and store home windows and set garbage bins on hearth, AFP reporters mentioned.
The Feb. 28 tragedy uncovered many years of security failings in Greek railways and has put main stress on the conservative authorities forward of nationwide elections.
Police mentioned 25,000 individuals protested in Athens on Thursday, in addition to round 8,500 in every of the nation’s subsequent largest cities, Thessaloniki and Patras. Brief clashes additionally broke out in Patras, police mentioned.
Thursday’s protests have been accompanied by a 24-hour strike – the largest but in days of business motion that adopted the catastrophe – this time known as by Greece’s main personal in addition to public sector unions.
The walkout shut down the civil service, flights and ferries.
‘Things should change’
Many protesters urged the federal government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to resign over what’s the nation’s deadliest rail accident.
“This crime will not be forgotten,” demonstrators from the nation’s communist union PAME chanted as the gang marched towards parliament in Athens.
Students shouted “murderers” and marchers threw flyers of Mitsotakis sporting a stationmaster’s cap, captioned “it’s everyone’s fault but mine.”
The rail catastrophe occurred shortly earlier than midnight when a passenger prepare crashed head-on right into a freight prepare in central Greece after each have been mistakenly left operating on the identical monitor.
Most of the passengers have been college students coming back from a vacation weekend.
“Things have to change in this country, we simply cannot mourn all these deaths,” mentioned Athens’ protester Stavroula Hatzitheodorou, in reference to lethal wildfires which have gripped Greece in recent times, in addition to the prepare crash.
“We hope that things will change in these elections,” Hatzitheodorou, who works within the personal sector, informed AFP.
A stationmaster and three different railway officers have been charged, however public anger has centered on long-running mismanagement of the community and the nation has been rocked by a collection of typically violent mass protests.
‘Murderers’
Last week, some 65,000 individuals took half in demonstrations across the nation, together with round 40,000 in Athens.
In addition to the 57 individuals who have been killed, a number of victims stay in hospital, together with one passenger who’s preventing for his life.
The Italian state-owned firm working rail companies in Greece, Hellenic Train, mentioned these damage within the accident and the households of the lifeless would every between 5,000 and 42,000 euros ($44,600) “to cover immediate needs.”
“This is in no way an admission of responsibility” the corporate careworn late Wednesday.
The father of 1 passenger who died rejected the provide.
“We don’t want their money … this was mass murder, I refuse to accept an apology from murderers,” Pavlos Aslanidis informed Alpha TV on Thursday.
“Had this been a serious country, everybody at the transport ministry would be in handcuffs,” he mentioned.
Polls slipping
Rail visitors floor to a whole halt throughout the nation after the accident, though appearing Transport Minister Georgios Gerapetritis mentioned this week that companies would progressively resume from March 22.
Gerapetritis mentioned a report by specialists investigating the tragedy will likely be delivered in a month’s time.
Investigators have individually opened a probe into doable railway funds mismanagement during the last 15 years.
Gerapetritis and former transport ministers will seem earlier than a parliamentary committee subsequent Monday to reply lawmakers’ questions on the tragedy.
With public anger mounting earlier than elections anticipated in May, Mitsotakis has seen a 7.5-point lead within the polls slashed to only over 3% in current surveys.
He has come below hearth for blaming “human error” for the accident and the stationmaster on responsibility on the time, who allegedly routed the trains onto the identical stretch of monitor accidentally.
But railway unions had lengthy been warning about issues on the underfunded and understaffed prepare community.
Mitsotakis had been anticipated to set an April election date. Ballots at the moment are anticipated in May.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
