This is the deadliest train accident in Greek history. Two years after the collision between two trains near Tempi, the cause has not yet been clarified. About 80% of Greeks believe that Athens is trying to cover up something.
On February 28, demonstrations and strikes will be held in Greece: the private and public sectors will stop working, ships will remain in ports, planes will not fly, trains will not run on rails. In many cities, shops will also be closed. Even Greeks abroad will join the protests - demonstrations are being organized in many European and American cities, even in Sydney, Buenos Aires, Akureyri in Iceland and Zanzibar. Everyone's demand is the same - justice for the victims of the deadliest train disaster in Greek history.
It could have been their children
The incident happened exactly two years ago. Shortly before midnight, the train from Athens to Thessaloniki collided head-on with a freight train near Tempi, not far from the city of Larissa. 57 people died, including several students who regularly used this route. Many more were injured. The disaster shook Greek society. People said to themselves: our children, grandchildren and friends could have been on that train too. Everyone was asking themselves how something like this could have happened and whether it would happen again.
Two years later, the victims' relatives and the Greek public are still waiting for answers. People want clarity and justice. But about 80 percent of Greeks are convinced that the government is trying to cover up everything - its negligence in repairing the faulty signaling systems since 2019, the delays in investing in new security technologies with European money and even the appointment of a 60-year-old unqualified supporter of the ruling party as the head of the Larisa station.
Lack of information and covering up problems
The government categorically denies accusations that it is covering up something. But this is not very convincing, because the causes of the incident will most likely never be revealed. The responsible authorities did not immediately take care to secure the recordings from the surveillance cameras or perform the necessary autopsies. In addition, immediately after the collision, about 300 cubic meters of soil were removed and the area was filled with gravel. This means that it can no longer be proven whether the freight train that collided with the passenger train was carrying illegal, flammable material that could have caused the explosion.
One of the political figures responsible, the then Minister of Transport Costas Achilleos Karamanlis, resigned the day after the incident, but two months later he was allowed to run for parliament again. In the June 2023 parliamentary elections, the conservative ruling party "New Democracy" won, and Karamanlis was welcomed into parliament by his party colleagues with a standing ovation. For the government, the tragedy in Tempe has been forgotten.
"We will not forget, we will not forgive"
On January 26, 2025, hundreds of thousands of people in Athens, Thessaloniki and a hundred other cities in the country protested with demands for justice for the victims of the disaster. The reason for the demonstrations was the distribution of an audio recording that proved that about 30 of the 57 victims did not die on the spot and could have been saved. The relatives of the victims demanded a protest, and the spontaneous reaction of the citizens was impressive - the largest demonstration in Greece in over ten years took place. "We will not forget, we will not forgive", people shouted in the streets.
The demonstrations were so large-scale that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was forced to give an interview on January 30 and change his previous position that "this is about human error". With uncharacteristic humility, Mitsotakis explained that the discovery of the truth is happening "slowly" and promised that there will be progress. The prime minister described the Tempi disaster as "an open wound, a collective trauma and grief" and added that he bows down - as prime minister and as a father - to Maria Caristianu, the head of the association of relatives of the victims, whose daughter died on the train. Caristianu has been fighting for two years to find the truth about the disaster and has been repeatedly attacked by pro-government journalists and internet trolls, even by some ministers.
Fear of the civil backlash
Mitsotakis, however, soon changed his strategy. Encouraged by his party's low ratings (currently around 22% approval), he decided to return to a harsher tone. In a new interview with the newspaper "Kathimerini", he criticized anyone who did not trust the judicial system and defended the courts. "Some people want to turn us into a jungle," Mitsotakis said, accusing the opposition of "instrumentalizing" the tragedy.
This Friday, however, it is not the opposition parties that are calling for a protest. People are following the plea of the relatives of the deceased and will protest for justice. They will also raise their voices against the unacceptable way the government is handling the incident. The ruling party again denied the accusations and advised people not to participate in the demonstrations. A poster even appeared on social media with the message "I will not go to the protest, I believe in the judicial system".