“I am enraged. Very very enraged,” said one protestor who didn’t wish to give her name. “I feel mockery. I feel they are mocking us in our faces.” Tens of thousands gathered in Athens’ central Syntagma square on Friday in protest on the two-year anniversary of the Tempi train crash. The crash, which occurred due to a combination of long-term systemic issues on Greece’s rail system, killed 57 people. Two years out, judicial investigations into the crime have not concluded, and questions about how exactly many of the victims died remain unanswered. The topic has become a boiling point in Greek society, and Friday’s protest was a manifestation of growing frustration and anger with the political and justice system.
Several parents of those who died in the Tempi crash spoke at the protest, sharing not just the pain of losing their children, but also their frustration with what they called lack of answers and accountability. The mother of a young woman named Kyriaki held up a photo of her daughter, and spoke of how she wished she could turn back time, eliciting tears and shouts of outrage from the crowd.
Several parents of victims and protestors in the crowd stated they did not belong to the governing New Democracy nor any of the opposition parties, insisting that their demands were not issues of party politics but problems with Greece’s justice and political system.
“I do not belong not belong to any party. I am not interested in any party. I am only interested in the future of my children,” a woman named Roi told To Vima International Edition. “I am a mother. I have never been to a demonstration. I have never been to a political gathering. I think what is happening is outrageous, it is desecration of the dead, I have to sleep like a human for two years.”
Roi stated that she doesn’t believe in the justice system and wants clear answers about who was responsible for the crash. “I don’t understand why there should be parliamentary immunity when someone is responsible for crimes, for thefts of money, for murders, why should there be parliamentary immunity.” She stated. “If I have done something, won’t I go to prison?”
There were also many high school students in attendance who noted that they had identified with the students who died in the Tempi crash. “We easily could have been in their position, or they could have been in ours,” said a student named Eleutheria.
“We want to find those who are guilty because after two years now we still don’t have answers,” said a student named Manis. “It can’t be permitted for officials to just cover each other.”
A woman who gave her name as Alexandra said she was a schoolteacher, and her school had closed for the day of the strike. “We are not holding a memorial service today, today we are shouting, the people have come out, the great river of people has come out,” she stated. “The people have anger inside and we are coming out to express this anger against the government, against those who have been telling us lies for so many years and have brought us to this situation, they are killing our children and we want an end to it.”
