Massive protests today all over Greece (Thessaloniki pictured) for the Tempi train disaster

https://i.redd.it/uaierz8rlvle1.jpeg

by ConsciousPatroller

25 comments

  1. **Context:** today marks the two-year anniversary of the [Tempi train disaster](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempi_train_crash), where two trains (a passenger and a freight train) collided head-on in the Tempi pass of the main Athens-Thessaloniki line. 57 people died as a result of the crash, with most of those being students and young people returning from Carnival celebrations.

    The accident exposed the terrible state of Greek railways, lacking modern control and safety systems and relying on employees’ skill and oftentimes luck to accomplish their operations. There were also suspicions (most of which have been officially confirmed by now) that the freight train carried illegal fuel in a smuggling operation, which exploded and caused most of the deaths (instead of the crash itself).

    Most importantly however, the current government immediately tried to suppress the protests that followed the incident, insulting the parents of the victims who lead the protests and accusing them of exploiting the situation for political gain. Throughout the past two years, these accusations, as well as attempts to actively sabotage the investigation into the freight train’s cargo, have escalated, causing many people to condemn the government, and leading to today’s protests. Current estimations of the people attending are in the hundreds of thousands, ranging to at least a million in Athens alone.

    Edit: [photo of the main protest on Athens. ~1m+ people](https://imgur.com/a/wTADeGH)

  2. There were a lot of communist party flags and banners today in Athens

  3. Serbian people are with you, Greek brothers, we need to fight tyranny and corruption together wherever we see it!

  4. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in my ever short life.

    This was the most populated mass movement in the history of Greece (or since the liberation from the Nazis).

  6. I was near the parlament. Some masked people were throwing firecrackers into the crowds on one of the side streets of the people leaving. I had to flee there. I am here as a tourist and I really like greece so far, yet I didn’t expect this protest to turn so violent.

  7. Great shot, ionic really. Very ignorant of me but I had no idea Thessaloniki was so built up.

  9. Good luck to our greek brothers and sisters!!!

    There is also protest in Belgrade in front of embassy of Greece to support you!

  10. to add: our current neo-liberal government’s 3 top politicians were recruited from a known far right party (Laos) some years ago, funded by Russia among others and one of them (Voridis) was even father Lepen’s best man. Party has currently under its grasp 80% of Greek media, like Erdogan in Turkey and during the campaign they hired an army of trolls in a defamation campaign against the victims abd the relatives. .
    And now what’s even worse, that party is split between following Europe or Trump.
    Back in 2012 the then pm of that party (erased few months ago), even shut down our public broadcaster.

    So they combine the worst from pro-nato and EU neo-liberals and pro-Russia far right.

  11. I was there. Possibly accompanied by millions of Greeks. Initially things were calm and peaceful. Right around 13:00 the police threw tear gas and smoke bombs. We had to climb iron bars to escape the thousands of people that were running terrified from the smoke bombs. On my way home things got uglier, the place was trashed upside down. Hopefully the government will fall after this and justice will prevail.

  13. Early estimates are over 450000 people in Athens alone.

  14. The corruption in our country runs very deep. I’m glad the government exposed its ugliness openly, so the people can finally see them for what they are.

  15. Never heard about this accident before now, but ‘It was discovered that the IC62 passenger train had been allowed to proceed on the wrong track and pass signals at danger despite the presence of the freight train on the same stretch of track’ is insane. Wish you all the best from the North 🇳🇴🇬🇷.

  16. Our government is filled with criminals. Mitsotakis and co should go to jail.

  17. Not only in Greece but all over the world. Greeks from the US, to Australia, Korea and multiple cities all over Europe protested against the cover up 

  18. Good on the people of Greece. Whatever this is about, the mass protest, the civil society response and the public will of the citizens. This is the kind of movilization and seriousness we need to keep in our societies to be functional and prosper.

    Don’t mess with justice, democracy, security and public services. Europe/Greece is not Disney World. No step back and strength. We do not want to be failed or declining nations or a joke, comedically grotesque governments. We know better we do better. This is great to see.

  20. Jesus Christ is there not a single piece of greenery in Greek cities?

  21. I wonder if EPP will say anything about it, probably not they tend to protect its member political parties even when they are corrupted, as we seen with Orbans’s political party, EPP was covering for them until it was no longer to possible to cover for them.

    EPP was also siding with corrupted government in Bulgaria when protests were going for 282 days.

  22. I biked past Königsplatz in Munich today and there were quite a few Greek people protesting there too.

  23. People really understate how a dense urban fabric is very conducive to effective and sustained protest.

    When people ask “why aren’t there protests like this in America?” Just imagine the logistics of commuting 20 miles by car to a gathering space with 15,000 other drivers…where do you even put your car? How do you get home? How do you get food?

    This image shows thousands of apartments, shops, restaurants, people can literally leave their house and join the protest with no barrier to entry.

  25. I was there. So many people. Young, old. Mothers with their kids. Schoolchildren waving is from the windows with signs. Everyone was there. Don’t let it die out!

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