Mitsosakis asks for “big forgiveness” from all Greeks for train crash that killed 57 people

Groups of protesters today threw Molotov cocktails during a protest in front of the Parliament of Athens on hold the government accountable for the death of 28 out of 57 people in a train accident, an accident for which the executive branch apologized today, after days of attributing responsibility to human error.

During the protest, in which local media reported that around 10,000 people participated, some protesters set garbage containers on fire and threw incendiary devices, according to various local media outlets. The police fired stun grenades and tear gas to a group of militants from the minority leftist party who wanted to go to the offices of Hellenic Train, the company that manages the railways in Greece.

One of the protesters’ banners read “Your policy costs lives”, while another accused the Government of being “murderous”.. This is the fifth day of demonstrations and tension in the streets of Greece since Tuesday’s train accident that killed 57 people when two trains collided head-on on the same track in the city of Larissa, near Athens.

The prime minister, conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakis, this Sunday asked for “a big apology” from all Greeks for the accident and acknowledged the lack of safety measures and automated control systems on the rail network. “We cannot, do not want and must not hide behind human error”pointed out Mitsotakis on his Facebook, thus changing the previous discourse that pointed to the station manager Larisa, who was accused, as being solely responsible for the incident.

Today, the accused admitted before the prosecutor’s office that he put the passenger train on the same track as the freight convoy that was going from the opposite direction, according to local media. The accident could have a high political price for the New DemocracyMitsotakis’s conservative party, ahead of general elections scheduled for spring next year.

Thousands of Greeks have been protesting for days demanding traffic safety and denouncing the existence of state responsibility because they did not modernize the railway structurewhich has no automated control systems that could prevent two trains from colliding.

Greece’s railway, Hellenic Train, is operated by the Italian company Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane, although the country’s railway infrastructure, including safety systems, is managed by the state-owned company OSE.