Three years after Greece's deadliest rail disaster, thousands returned to the streets of Thessaloniki to demand justice, accountability and a safer railway system, honouring the memory of the 57 people killed in the Tempi train collision on 28 February 2023.
Protesters gathered at the city centre before marching towards Thessaloniki's New Railway Station, the destination that the ill-fated passenger train never reached. Outside the station, demonstrators laid flowers in tribute to the victims.
Relatives of the victims, survivors and railway workers stood side by side with members of the public to demand accountability for the deep-rooted systemic failures within Greece's rail infrastructure.
"We are here and across Greece to shout louder 'either profits or our lives'," said Eleni Vasara, mother of 22-year-old Agapi Tsaklidou, who was killed in the crash. Recalling the early hours after the collision, she said families were still waiting in the hospital in Larissa for identification of their loved ones while people across the country were already protesting.
"This crime will not be covered up, we will become the voice of all the dead," she said, adding that ahead of the main trial, due to begin on 23 March, "we will fight both outside the courts and inside the courts" to secure justice. For the families, she stressed, justice means identifying the causes "at all levels", punishing those responsible "with prison sentences", and fundamentally changing the railway so it operates safely.
Smaro Oikou, sister of 28-year-old train driver Dimitris, described the anniversary as "a wound". "We are 23 days before the trial, and we want to send a loud message that people do not forget. The issue of Tempi is not stale. It concerns us all," she said, criticising what she called "silences, delays, mockery, deliberate postponements, deliberate concealments and deliberate omissions" in the judicial process.
Survivor Evdokia Tsangkli spoke of gratitude and resolve. "I feel great gratitude for all these people who are here. I feel great gratitude that I am here today, because I could not be," she said. "We will fight."
Railway worker Giorgos Koulalis rejected arguments that the disaster was simply the result of "human error", insisting that "many factors" were responsible for leaving the railway system "at the mercy" of neglect over many years.
Strong police forces deployed on foot, and motorcycles used chemicals during crowd control operations. By late afternoon, the demonstration turned into a violent riot with multiple arrests.
By Areti Tassoula and Kostas Kechagias - adapted from Greek by Vassia Barba
