The third day of protests over the train accident in Greece raises the pressure on the country's government

Outrage over the train accident in which at least 57 people died on Wednesday is multiplying in Greece.

A new day of mobilization, in protest against what many sectors consider negligence by the authorities to prevent accidents such as the collision of two trains near the city of Larisa, has joined this Friday the extension of the strike of the country's railway sector , which already lasts two consecutive days.

The unrest that this Friday noon has brought thousands of people to the streets in Athens and the call for demonstrations in at least eight other Greek cities this afternoon – including Thessaloniki and Larisa – increases the pressure on the Government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the middle of an election year.

The elections are expected in spring or, at the latest, in summer.

The demonstration in the center of Athens has been called by university associations, a group especially furious about the accident, many of whose victims were young students returning from a festive bridge.

This Friday is the third day of protests in the capital, after the demonstrations the day before ended with clashes between protesters and police, both in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Already on Wednesday night, when barely 24 hours had elapsed since what is already the worst railway tragedy in the history of Greece, groups of protesters threw Molotov

at agents outside the headquarters of the company that operates the Greek trains, Hellenic Train.

The police responded with tear gas.

If the discontent of young people is great, that of the railway unions is not less.

The workers of the former Greek state train company, privatized in 2017, do not seem willing to reduce the pressure on the Government for an accident that the sector attributes to what it considers deficient security systems and the negligence of the authorities.

The passenger train that crashed on Wednesday was traveling at high speed and on the same track as the freight convoy it collided with in Tempe, 376 kilometers north of Athens.

In the statement announcing the extension to this Friday of the strike that left all Hellenic Train routes without service on Thursday, the Panhellenic Federation of Railways demands an immediate meeting with the Ministry of Transport and the political parties and gives them a period of one week.

At that appointment, the trade union center affirms, it will give them a copy of all the letters that they have sent over the years "to ministries, administrations and political parties" warning of the serious deficiencies in the safety of Greek trains.

The text also warns the Greek Executive that the union aspires for the Administration to commit to a schedule for the installation and implementation of railway safety measures.

The workers' representatives reject that all responsibility be placed on the head of the Larisa station, the only one arrested so far for the incident.

The industry federation argues that the 59-year-old worker had very little experience, had barely been on the job for a month, and, in the union's opinion, should not have performed such an important role alone in one of the busiest stations in the world. country.

In his first statement before the investigating judge on Thursday, the man admitted to making a mistake.

His lawyer later declared to

, the main Greek left-wing newspaper, that his representative "accepts his part of the responsibility, but cannot assume the entire burden", also alluding to possible security failures. of the trains.

Graffiti at the headquarters of the train company in Athens, this Friday.LOUISA GOULIAMAKI (AFP)

Stelios Sourlas, representative of the family of one of the victims, has also stressed in statements to the Greek media that "criminal responsibilities" do not end with the station manager.

He explained that his representatives, the father and mother of a 23-year-old girl who died in the accident, had no news of her daughter for two days, until her body was finally identified.

“The company has not contacted us, no one has appeared, no one has apologized.

The responsibility is not only of the station manager, there are also criminal responsibilities in the company and in the political superiors, ”he stressed.

"Chronic pathologies"

The Mitsotakis government has so far not spoken out in the public discussion about possible political responsibilities, arguing that until the end of the three days of official mourning is not the right time for this type of debate.

The Greek Executive has reiterated that it has already reached a "conclusion": that of "tragic human error", which it attributes to the detained station manager, but has also mentioned "chronic pathologies" of the railways.

The opposition alleges that the Government speaks of generic failures to avoid assuming specific responsibilities.

The Greek Supreme Court has appointed prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos to lead the judicial investigation of the accident.

Dogiakos has assured the Greek media that he will endeavor to identify those responsible "whoever they are and wherever they come from."

It has also ordered the head of the Larisa Appeals Prosecutor's Office, the closest city to Tempe, the town where the train crash occurred, to carry out "an exhaustive investigation, in all directions, through the immediate investigation of all the evidence related to the tragedy”.

"It is the hour of justice" declared Dogiakos, adding that it is not only necessary to clarify the criminal responsibilities of specific individuals, but that "a complete investigation is required" for "the attribution of responsibilities in all senses",

The technical teams remove a train wagon from the scene of the accident, this Friday. STRINGER (AFP)

Meanwhile, the Greek firefighters have announced that this Friday they will conclude the removal operation of the first three wagons of the wrecked passenger train, reduced to a mass of twisted and charred iron.

Those wagons, the most affected, which caught fire after the violent collision, will later be transferred to another place, where they will continue the inspection tasks of the police.

The fire brigade will maintain a checkpoint of 35 agents at the point of the accident until the task of searching for human remains in what were passenger cars and freight wagons is completed.

36 of the 57 deceased have already been identified.

Many corpses remain nameless because some are so charred that they are being identified by DNA testing.

The confusion regarding the list of 56 disappeared has not yet been clarified, as doubts persist regarding the real number of people who were traveling on the train.

At the Larisa station, some passengers got on and bought their tickets from the conductors, so there is no record of their presence on the train nor do they appear on the official passenger list of 342 people plus the train staff.

At least 38 injured remain hospitalized and seven are in critical condition, in the ICU.

They are all young in their twenties.

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