Greek public-sector workers hold strike after fatal train crash
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The closed entrance to a suburban train station in Athens during a 48-hour strike by railway unions against the conditions of the Greek railway network, on March 4, 2023.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
ATHENS – Greek civil servants, teachers, ferry crews, and train and bus drivers were among the workers walking off their jobs on Wednesday.
This follows Greece’s worst train crash last week
A week after the tragedy, public anger is mounting over the causes of the accident, which occurred when a passenger train travelling from Athens to Thessaloniki and a freight train collided at high speed on the same track in the Tempe valley of central Greece.
“We demand, together with all workers and the people, that the policy of privatisations be put to an end and that the real reasons for the murderous crime of Tempe be found,” Adedy, the umbrella organisation for public-sector labour unions, said in a statement announcing the 24-hour strike.
The collision ignited a fire, with the temperature in a burning car reaching as high as 1,300 deg C.
Many on board and among those killed were students returning to their places of study following a long holiday weekend.
The crash has raised questions about how the Greek state functions, amid claims that the country has not upgraded its rail network in line with European Union requirements.
The new transportation minister, appointed after his predecessor resigned following the crash, has planned a press conference for later on Wednesday to present the government’s initiatives to upgrade Greece’s railway infrastructure.
“In Greece of 2023, it is not possible for two trains to run on opposite sides of the same track without anyone noticing,” Mr Mitsotakis said in a public apology on Sunday in a post on his Facebook page.
He reiterated, though, that the accident was triggered by a human error, saying that “we can’t, we don’t want and we shouldn’t” hide behind it.
The train accident adds to the pressure Mr Mitsotakis is facing following disclosures last year that the country’s national intelligence service spied on the leader of Greece’s opposition socialist Pasok party, and a reporter investigating powerful business figures.
The Greek Premier’s term ends in July.
Before the deadly event, Mr Mitsotakis’ centre-right New Democracy party consistently led in polls, and the Premier was expected to call an early election. No new polls have been published since the accident.
A first ballot will take place under a straightforward proportional representation system, making it hard to have a single-party government, with the probable need for a second general election around a month later.
That vote will happen under a semi-proportional system that makes it easier to shape a government. BLOOMBERG
