(28 Feb 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Athens, Greece – 28 February 2025
1. Wide of protest with parliament in background
2. Medium of protesters with banner reading (Greek) "No cover-up. What is right will be judged with the people on the street"
3. Various of demonstrators
STORYLINE:
Two years after a devastating train crash in northern Greece, a general strike and hundreds of demonstrations are bringing the nation to standstill to mark the anniversary of a tragedy that has become a symbol of institutional failure.
The mass mobilization, led by relatives of the 57 people killed, has been fueled by public resentment against the conservative government’s perceived inaction.
Critics say that politicians should be held accountable for failures that led up to the crash, but so far only rail officials have charged with any crimes.
"Everyone’s demands are for justice for the dead of Tempe," Pavlos Aslanidis, the father of one of the train crash victims, told the Associated Press.
The Feb. 28, 2023, disaster in Tempe – where a passenger train collided head-on with an oncoming freight train – was Greece’s worst railway accident.
The fiery crash also left dozens injured and exposed deficiencies in the country’s transportation infrastructure.
Flights and rail services have been canceled, ferries halted and public transportation across the country has been severely disrupted.
Private businesses and public services have also been affected, with many stores in Athens closed, leaving messages of solidarity for the victims’ families in front windows.
Thousands gathered Friday in front of Parliament, while demonstrations are planned in more than 300 cities and towns in Greece and abroad.
More than 5,000 police officers are being deployed in the capital to manage crowds and potential unrest.
Memorial services will be held at Orthodox churches in Athens for the victims, who included many university students returning from a long weekend.
Their families have urged protesters to keep the focus on remembrance rather than politics.
The protests have created a politically precarious moment for Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government.
His conservatives maintain a strong lead in the polls, but public dissatisfaction over the Tempe disaster has led to surging support for anti-establishment parties on both the left and right.
Opposition leaders, who are struggling to gain traction, are weighing whether to put forward a censure motion.
Mountainous Greece is largely road-reliant and the nation’s railway system is centered around a single route between Athens and the second-largest city, Thessaloniki, a fact that made the collision harder for many to understand.
A long-awaited report on the investigation into the Tempe crash, released Thursday, blamed human error, outdated infrastructure and major systemic failures for the head-on collision.
The aftermath was marked by scenes of chaos, with surviving passengers describing tumbling carriages, fires and smashed windows as they scrambled to escape.
It was followed by the gruesome task of victim recovery and identification as many bodies were severely burned or dismembered.
Funerals were held across numerous communities throughout Greece, many streamed or broadcast live, turning private grief into a shared national experience.
AP Video by Michael Varaklas
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