1000’s participate in recent Greek protest over lethal practice crash
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1000’s of individuals protested on Sunday in opposition to security deficiencies in Greece’s railway community practically two weeks after dozens have been killed within the nation’s deadliest practice crash.
The demonstrators additionally demanded punishment for these accountable for the head-on collision between a passenger practice and a freight practice that killed 57 individuals Feb. 28. Police mentioned that greater than 8,000 individuals in Athens gathered exterior Parliament to protest on Sunday.
The protesters later marched to the places of work of privatized practice operator Hellenic Prepare. The corporate, which has been owned by Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane since 2017, is not accountable for the upkeep of the railway community. State-owned Hellenic Railways is in command of maintenance.
Authorities shut down 4 subway stations on two strains working by central Athens due to the protest.
The rally was organized by civil servants, a pro-communist union and college college students.
In Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest metropolis, about 5,000 individuals demonstrated, listened to speeches and shouted slogans, reminiscent of “we would be the voice for all of the useless.”
Sunday’s rallies, which handed off with out critical incident, weren’t as well-attended as comparable occasions earlier within the week, when greater than 30,000 had turned out in Athens and greater than 20,000 in Thessaloniki. Police mentioned 4 individuals have been detained in Athens.
A memorial service was carried out for 12 college students of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle College, Greece’s largest, who have been killed within the practice crash.
An inexperienced stationmaster accused of putting the trains on the identical observe has been charged with negligent murder and different offenses, and the nation’s transportation minister and senior railway officers resigned the day after the crash.
Revelations of great security gaps on Greece’s busiest rail line have put the center-right authorities of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the defensive. He has pledged the federal government’s full cooperation with a judicial inquiry into the crash.
Elections are due later this spring and opinion polls launched over the previous week have proven the ruling conservatives’ lead over the left-wing opposition shrink nearly by half in contrast with polls printed earlier than the crash.
(AP)
