Protests in Greece continue to grow on Wednesday as public outrage mounts over last week’s train accident that left at least 57 dead.
Tens of thousands took part in the protests as major unions of workers, civil servants, and students staged in a day-long walkout, with the largest crowd since the tragic accident filling Athens’ central Syntagma Square.
Demonstrators of all ages carrying banners and chanting, “Their profits, our deaths” and “No more blood for their profits.” The protest also coincided with International Women’s Day, with significant participation by women’s rights groups.
Addressing the crowd, student and trade union leaders blamed current authorities and past governments for the accident that claimed the lives of many university students and nine traincrew members. “Our children’s life above everything,” was another slogan that protestors chanted.
Pro-privatization policies by both the ruling Nea Dimokratia (ND) party and opposition SYRIZA and PASOK parties that saw the operator Greek Railways fall into corporate hands and prioritized profit over human life led to this and many other accidents, they asserted.
The crowd also commemorated the victims of last month’s earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine.
As the demonstrations progressed with one of the crowd’s main bodies pushing on to march from Syntagma to the nearby Omonia Square, a group of people dressed in black started to clash with police.
Police responded by firing teargas canisters to disperse the group, which threw firebombs before leaving.
Source: Anadolu Agency