Protesters in over a 100 cities in Greece and abroad demand justice for 2023 rail crash victims
Protesters in over a 100 cities in Greece and abroad demand justice for 2023 rail crash victims
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Tens of thousands of Greeks took to the streets in 110 cities Sunday, including 13 locations abroad, to demand justice for the 57 victims of the country’s deadliest rail disaster in 2023. The largest marches, with about 30,000 taking part in each, took place in Greece’s two largest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki. They were mostly peaceful, although in each city, small groups of people attacked police forces with rocks and flares. Police responded with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. The clashes only lasted a few minutes.
In London, about 500 people demonstrated outside the Greek Embassy in the Holland Park neighborhood. More protests were staged in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Helsinki, London, Nicosia, Reykjavik and Valetta, Malta. The protesters, called to demonstrate by victims’ relatives, held placards and chanted “I have no oxygen,” a phrase reportedly uttered by a victim, still alive, who called the 112 European emergency number to report the incident. Another placard, seen in Thessaloniki, accused the state, the conservative government and the European Commission of having blood on their hands.
“What is happening today is majestic,” Pavlos Aslanidis, the father of a victim, told media in Thessaloniki. “This is now a global fight,” he added, referring to the protests abroad. “Μy son’s soul must be elated ... I believe we will win. We have the state ranged against us, but we will win.”.
