The largest protest in Greece and the general strike requires justice for the victims of Tempi railway accidents

Greece saw a huge force show by the working class and the youth on Friday, hundreds of thousands participating in the largest protests in the history of the nation. They were on the streets of the Capital Athens and from each other city and an important city to demand justice for the 57 people who died in 2023 and an end of a government coverage.

Thousands of protesters gather on Stadiou Street in the center of Athens, Greece, to mark two years from a fatal railway disaster, which also triggered hundreds of other demonstrations and a general strike, on February 28, 2025 (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

The protests were supported by demonstrations at over 100 Greek embassies and internationally consular, on all six inhabited continents.

The protests, which mark the second anniversary of the deaths of February 28, 2023, were called by the association of the relatives of the Victims of Tempi and were even greater than the ones he called at the end of January. Forced to recognize the mood of mass opposition – and as in the case of protests in January – the trade union federation of the public sector Adedy and the general confederation of the private sector of Greek workers called general strikes.

There were 265 protests completely in Greece and 112 internationally – almost 400 in total. The main international meetings included Berlin, Germany and London, Edinburgh and Manchester in the UK; Rio in Brazil; New York and Boston in the US; and Sydney, Australia.

About 3,000 protesters outside the Greek embassy in London, UK

Hundreds of people protested despite the fact that he poured rain in Berlin, Germany. Referring to the political parties in Greece, which are involved in deaths, a banner read: “Syriza, Pasok, ND – Tempi has a history”

Participation in the latest Tempi demonstrations is greater than any unions may ever consider mobilization, threatening the fall of the Conservative Government of the new Democracy (ND) of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Each centimeter of the Syntagma main market in Athens was filled, and its streets were full of protesters. The rally was prepared to assemble at 11 in the morning, but the market was already full not long after 8:00. Daily Efimerida Ton Syntakton (The newspaper of the publishers) noted that the masses of people could not reach anywhere near Syntagma, with the protest that stretched up to a kilometer away in Omnia Square and in another direction, Propylaea.

Many have brought home banners and banners that condemn the government as “killers” for the supervision of preventable deaths. Among the slogans scales and other banners were counted “I have no oxygen” and “privatizations kill”.

“I have no oxygen” were the last words that were tickling a young passenger who called 112 European emergency to report the accident, after the passenger train was colcinated in a freight train. This caused a mass of massive fire, with the grieving families convinced that this was due to the freight train carrying an illegal freight – a fact covered by the government.

Even the police, notorious because he emphasized the size of the demonstrations in Greece, said that there are over 170,000 people in Athens and 325,000 people on the streets at national level.

Greece has registered many generally large strokes since imposing mass austerity by the successive government since 2008. But the extent of the protests on the Tempi, and the latest general strike are the larger sizes, because the whole country was brought in the opinion.

Loading Tweet …

The strikes started the night before, while the workers Coca Cola went to a factory near Athens. The transport stopped, because the international and internal flights were founded by the air traffic controllers, with trains, trams and bus services. Seaparers, train drivers, doctors, nurses, teachers and lawyers have all hit. The government offices closed, along with many shops and business, and the hospitals only opened for emergencies. Even some of the most upper cafes, restaurants and bars have closed due to mass mobilization.

The only transport that ran to Athens were the trains to take the protesters to the central squares. Even this was barely possible with Ef syn Reporting, under a title “This has not happened before!”, “The subway stations have been flooded with thousands of people. National is full, trains have increased programs to serve people who want to go to the center, but people cannot fit in carriages. “

The newspaper has published that it was formed “a huge” tsunami “that is not limited to mourning, it is not satisfied with honoring the memory of the 57 victims of the crime in tempi, passengers and workers from the fatal trains. But he wants the truth, the claim, the punishment of the true culprits. “

Authorities have done their best to disturb the protests and to prevent people from reaching squares, even closing the subway stations in Syntagma and Panepistimiou. A massive contingent of over 5,000 police officers, including the Revolt Police, was mobilized to face the protesters – a substantial proportion between the 65,000 that make up the Greek police at national level. After a few hours, and with the growth of the crowds, the anti -disturbed police used tear gas and grenade in Syntagma, forcing the protesters to disperse. Photojournalist Ape-Lampe, Orestis Panayiotou, was injured by a police grenade.

Among dozens of arrests made by the police were 25 protesters who climbed the roof of the headquarters with Greek trains and held banners reading “killers”.

Many thousands refused to be full and returned to Syntagma Square to continue protesting. Another thousands returned to the market later on Friday night to protest. Talking to Reuters The news agency, the protester Avi said it was there to mourn the dead, “but also because the government tried to cover things.” Christ, a musician said: “The government did nothing to get justice … it was not an accident, but it was a crime.”

In his speech to the Syntagma crowd, Maria Karystianu-which lost her 20-year-old daughter, Marthi in the accident and who is the president of the Tempi Victim Association, faced the Parliament building and said: “I address the killers of our children. You treated our deaths with disrespect and contempt. The human parts and bones of our children remain unoccupied in hidden locations. You have committed the supreme sacrilege and you will receive what is due by the revenge of the dead. ”

Maria Karystianou, Marthi, 21 -year -old, a victim of the train accident, is seen on the screen that holds a banner read in Greek “I have no oxygen”, during a rally in the center of Athens, Greece, to mark two years from a fatal railway disaster, which launched hundreds of other demonstrations, on Friday, February 28, (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris))))

The anger of millions was stimulated by the statement on Thursday of a long -awaited report by the Greek authority of the investigation of air and railway accidents (HARSIA). Many details in the report break the government narrative and its coverage.

The report states: “It is impossible to establish what caused exactly (the fire ball), but the simulations and expert reports indicate the possible presence of a fuel so far unknown.” The government has long denied that any fuel was aboard the freight train, maintaining the fiction that a gigantic fire ball of 80 to 100 meters long that encompassed the passenger train after the collision was produced by silicone oil on train transformers.

“Serious information disappeared, because the accident site was not sealed,” the report said.

In front of the Friday’s protest massif, Prime Minister Mitsotakis issued a provocative and self-serving statement, who said the accident was reduced to “human errors” and “chronic failures of the state”, while refusing to take any responsibility for mass deaths on his hour.

The mass eruption of anger to tempi – which it has brought to the surface opposition to all the attacks that have been implemented against the working class for decades of capitalist parties of all political stripes – can now see not only the fall of Mitsotakis, but that of his government. Moreover, the entire rotten political establishment in Greece is involved. Syriza Pseudo-Stânga (left radical coalition) in power from 2015-19, deepened an offensive against the working class, unprecedented on the European continent. As part of a type of privatization, Syriza sold the state -rail network in Greece in 2017 in 2017, for only 45 million euros, leaving a railway service already under resources to the profits, the railway workers forced to rely on antique technology, including manual signaling systems.

As WSWS mentioned, “post-private, the railway network in Greece is one of the most dangerous in Europe. From 2018 to 2020, according to the European Union Agency for Railways, Greece has registered the highest fatality rate of railways a million kilometers of train among 28 European nations. “

Next week, after months of prevaricion, Syriza, will join the social-democratic pasok in presenting a common motion against the Government.