Relatives of victims of the Tempi train crash gathered outside the office of New Democracy politician Kostas Karamanlis, who was transport minister at the time of the tragedy.
On Sunday, grieving relatives who formed an association traveled to the city of Serres to demand justice for the 57 victims. Dozens of people demanded that the former minister, who resigned a day after the clash, did not run for parliament in the 21 May elections. In a broken voice, the young woman, as a representative of the families, read out one by one the names of all 57 victims.
Οι δολοφονημένοι των Τεμπών ζήτησαν χθες δικαίωση στις Σέρρες.
Ιερή και συγκλονιστική στιγμή όταν η εκπρόσωπος των οικογενειών των θυμάτων άρχ ισε να εκφωνεί τα ονόματα των νεκρών. Ρίγησαν και οι πέτρες.
Τώρα οι Σερραίοι δεν μπορούν να ισχυριστούν ότι δεν ήξεραν.
Τώρα είναι… pic.twitter.com/LRqqaCu40f— Areti Athanasiou (@AretiAthanasiu) May 15, 2023
They called on the people of Serres not to vote for the former Minister of Transport (2019-March 1, 2023). With the central slogan “I don’t forget – 57 souls want justice!” they also chanted, “The tears have dried up and become rage, the new generation does not forgive you!” and “Black [голос] Karamanlis, what he deserves is prison!”
Nearly half of the victims are young people, mostly students, returning home or to university after the long Clean Monday weekend on February 28th.
Serres in northern Greece is the hometown of the Karamanlis family, one of the 3 main political clans in Greece, who send legislators and prime ministers to govern the Greeks, whether they are capable of it or not. Kostas Karamanlis is the nephew of the conservative New Democracy founder Konstantinos Karamanlis, who was a four-time Prime Minister and two-time President of the Hellenic Republic.
It is worth noting that the meeting of relatives of the Tempi victims was not broadcast by state and private TV channels, it was covered only by some opposition newspapers and social networks.
The tragedy in Tempi forced the ruling New Democracy party to postpone the general election by more than a month, and the issue disappeared from government-affiliated media, that is, the vast majority of media in Greece.
The ND has closely followed opinion polls about the Tempi tragedy, and some media outlets exclaimed gleefully a week ago: “The government survived the train wreck.”
More Stories
Türkiye: a lesson about the “Blue Homeland” is being introduced in the educational program
France disrupts the FDI-HN frigate delivery program
Z. Konstantopoulou: "Investigate the judge – she was the presiding judge in the Faliro, Mandra and Matiu cases"