Huge protests in Athens and Thessaloniki!
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators participated in the protests that took place on Sunday January 26 at around 200 cities, towns, and even villages in the greek geography and in many european cities!
Clashes with the police in front of the parliament in Athens and near the Thessaloniki train station
“I don’t have oxygen” was the main slogan of the protests – referring to the finding that many were killed not by the collision itself, but by the fire caused by prohibited chemicals on the cargo train. This phrase (“I don’t have oxygen” ) was spoken during a phone call from young students, inside the passengers train, who had survived the crash, but died afterwards in the fire. The government was reassuring until recently that there was nothing suspicious in the cargo train and the recorded phone call was kept hidden.
Οn February 28, 2023, a passenger service carrying 350 people collided with a freight train near the Greek village of Tempi, causing the front carriages to burst into flames. 57 people died, up to 30 of them because of the fire. Almost two yearrs have passed, and all this time the government was downsizing the consequences of the railroads privatization, the cut down on staff, and the lack of safety standards, saying that everything was a “human error” of just one person (the IC62 passenger train had been allowed to proceed on the wrong track and pass signals at danger despite the presence of the freight train on the same stretch of track).
All this time the government, the mass media and members of the juridical system were accusing the relatives of the dead for trying to “exploit politically” the deaths of their loved ones, while it was obvious that the investigation was being manipulated.
Last Sunday’s protests were the biggest since the 2011 anti-austerity movement and more wide spread than the December 2008 unrest for the killing of Alexis Grigoropoulos. “State and capital murder, this is capitalism”, “From Tempi to Serbia, privatization kills and governments cover up”, “Let not only death unite us, overthrow those who deprive us of oxygen” were some of the slogans that the demonstrators were shouting. Demonstrators clashed with the police in front of the parliament in Athens and near the Thessaloniki train station.
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- Athens
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- Thessaloniki
The huge protets in Athens (left) and Thessaloniki (right)
“TEMPI, PYLOS (the June 13, 2023, shipwreck with 600 dead migrants), FEMICIDES, they all were ‘TRAGIC ACCIDENTS’.
Struggle everyday for Life!
Till death is not the only thing that unites us!”
Protests took place in many european cities too.
Footage from the clashes in Athens and in Thessaloniki.