Greece gripped by massive strikes as suspicion and anger boil over

ATHENS ― Greece will come almost entirely to a standstill Friday as grief, anger and accusations of high-level political corruption reach a head.

Public transport, airplanes, schools and courts ― even supermarkets, shops, cafés, theaters, bars and clubs ― will close their doors, while huge demonstrations are expected to paralyze the country.

The national strike is unprecedented in its breadth in this country of 10 million. While on their surface the protests merely mark the two-year anniversary of the country’s worst rail tragedy ― an accident that killed 57 people ― at its core are the emotions and unsettling questions the crash provoked. Those go far beyond the disaster itself. 

Amid an atmosphere of blame, recrimination and suspicion that the government isn’t being honest with its citizens, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis faces his biggest challenge since taking office in 2019. Given public concerns over the administration’s commitment to democracy and legal freedoms, his reaction to the protests is being watched closely.

According to opinion polls, the vast majority of Greeks believe the government is attempting to cover up what really happened, and who was really to blame, when a freight train and a passenger train packed with students crashed head-on just before midnight on Feb. 28, 2023. There is speculation ― neither proved nor entirely disproven ― that highly flammable chemicals were being transported.

It doesn’t help that two years on, a trial has yet to even begin amid constant delays in the investigation. Greeks have lost trust in their country’s judicial system, the surveys say, while the government denies any wrongdoing.

Explosion and a fireball

Friday’s protests, which are being organized by the families of the crash victims, will take place in more than 350 cities both in Greece and abroad, places as diverse as Akureyi in Iceland, Mexico City and South Korea.

While the government of the center-right New Democracy party was reelected after the tragedy, its handling of the fallout since has only served to intensify the scrutiny. 

The pressure became intense in January after audio recordings from inside the train were leaked. The evidence indicated that some victims had survived the impact and may have died due to asphyxiation or burns from a massive explosion and fireball that ripped through the carriages.

It included a young woman’s last words ― “I have no oxygen” ― in a call to emergency services. 

“Serious information went missing because the site of the accident was not sealed,” said Christos Papadimitriou, the head of Greece’s National Aviation and Railway Accident Investigation Organization, which was created after the crash.

Papadimitriou hailed the families of the victims who had taken on the “titanic task” of investigating the accident scene themselves and had commissioned private experts in the absence of a coordinated state response. “Everyone owes them an apology,” he said.

The government also failed to heed a call from the European public prosecutor to take action regarding the potential criminal liability of two former transport ministers following the crash.

“Those who delayed [the implementation of the railway contract] have contributed decisively to the death of these children,” Papadimitriou said.

The main opposition, the center-left Pasok party, said it would file a no-confidence motion in parliament against the government.

However, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis ruled out the possibility of early elections and accused Pasok of opportunism and attempting to exploit the tragedy for electoral gain.

‘Must never happen again’

A long-awaited report on the investigation was released on Thursday, blaming human error, the country’s outdated infrastructure and major systemic failures for the deadly crash.

The 178-page report by the Accident Investigation Organization confirmed suspicions that an “unknown” substance may have contributed to a massive explosion and fireball.

Intense speculation has surrounded the cargo that was being transported by the freight train that night, and multiple investigations have probed the possibility of oil smuggling. Trace amounts of xylene and benzene, chemicals used in the manufacture of gasoline, were detected at the scene.

Accident Investigation Organization experts said that vital information was lost by improper handling of the accident site. Wrecked carriages were removed, and the site was covered with rubble three days after the crash, at a time when families were still hoping to recover the remains of the victims. It remains unclear who gave that order.

“What happened ― with the evidence being destroyed in three days ― must never happen again,” lead investigator Kostas Kapetanidis said at a press conference.

The investigators also cited procedural errors for the failure to identify the type of fuel being transported.

The report describes a chaotic situation in the aftermath of the accident.

“There was no actual coordination, whether at operational or strategical level, of the different services at the scene of the collision. Each service continued to operate under its own orders, initiatives, and personnel without any interaction at the organizational level,” it said.

“One particular result of this is the fact that no proper mapping of the accident investigation site was performed.”