Cassandra Voices

Tag: Greece

  • Greece: An Accident Waiting to Happen

    Public anger has erupted over a lack of political accountability in the wake of the tragic train crash near the city of Larissa in Greece.

    On Wednesday, March 8, after a general strike had been proclaimed for that day, a massive crowd gathered in the centre of Athens. Avenues connecting Syntagma Square, right outside the Parliament, all the way to Omonoia Square (the second central square of Athens) were packed with people.

    It was unquestionably the largest demonstration in over a decade, with an estimated crowd of up to one hundred thousand. Public anger had reached a tipping point, and it took only a spark for an extended, severe riot to break out.

    The protest was in response to the tragic train crash, which happened the previous Tuesday night, February 28. The exact number of casualties is yet to be determined. Fifty-seven have been pronounced dead so far, with many more injured. Wednesday’s demonstration wasn’t the first of its kind, but rather the culmination of protests all over Greece since the previous Wednesday, March 1.

    At first glance at the news, a foreign reader might be puzzled by why a tragedy of this sort would be politicized to such an extent, but to the majority of the Greek public this wasn’t just a horrific misfortunate. It was, as the graffiti reads in Greece these days, “A Crime of the State”.

    The events of February 28, definitely involve human error. A passenger train ended up in the same track as a cargo carrier coming from the opposite direction. For twelve whole minutes the two trains were speeding towards each other at 166km/h, eventually crashing in a nightmarish head on collision, at Tempi, just outside the city of Larissa.

    Video Links

    https://www.facebook.com/KouletsiouNikol/videos/2234748540038197

    https://www.facebook.com/lazos.papazisis.5/videos/1359454877954621

    The fifty-nine-year-old station master of Larissa has since been arrested and charged with multiple counts of manslaughter, and disruption to public transport security.

    His lawyer made the following statement on Thursday, March 2, hinting clearly at the broad scope of responsibility for the disaster: “The accused is literally devastated (…) He has assumed the share of responsibility that is proportionate to him, within the frame of responsibility that he should have and he does, but beyond that, we should not focus on the tree when there is a whole forest behind it.”

    On the same day, the rail workers held a strike, blaming all governments and especially the current one of Nea Dimokratia, for criminal neglect that led to the tragic events. Union representatives have been appearing on national television, exclaiming that they have warned about such dangers repeatedly, protesting against poor working conditions, chronic under-staffing and a failure to implement basic infrastructure upgrades.

    However, whenever they have attempted to strike over this in the last few years, these were deemed illegal, based on new legislation introduced by Nea Dimokratia Minister Kostas Hatzidakis.

    Public debate in Greece has also focused on the damage to the railroad system caused by privatization, which was always championed by the current right-wing government, but was in fact signed into law by the previous left-wing SYRIZA government.

    The leader of MERA 25 (another left-wing party in Parliament) and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis tweeted on Wednesday, March 1: “Now is the moment to grieve and to look after the injured and the victims’ families. But soon we shall bring to Greece’s parliament the underlying issue: yet another tragedy caused by a hideous railway privatization. Paddington 1999, Larissa 2023.”

    Already on that same day, protests had started, with violent clashes erupting in Athens between riot police and protesters.

    The Government followed a tactic of heavily policing every relevant gathering, even in situations where people were grieving peacefully. The sadly predictable Greek standard of police brutality ensued, further fueling the public’s anger.

    More demonstrations were held on Thursday and Friday. There was a call out to more than twenty cities across Greece, with heavy clashes erupting again in Athens and Thessaloniki.

    The situation kept escalating and on Sunday, March 5, a thirty-thousand-strong-crowd gathered in Syntagma Square and went on to march through the centre of Athens. Once again, violent riots broke out and spread throughout the city centre.

    Another aspect of the tragedy, which has stoked public anger, has been the mainstream media coverage, which in many cases has been simply to parrot all the talking points of the Nea Dimokratia government about the crash.

    The media situation in Greece is exceptionally dire under the current administration, which has consolidated an unprecedented amount of control over it, which is only broken by social media, as has been explained in a previous article.

    In the aftermath of the train crash we have seen one of the most blatant manifestations of such corrupt journalism. But in this case it seems the public is not buying it, to a greater extent than ever before.

    A video from a popular YouTube channel, mocking several well-known TV journalists for their coverage of the disaster, has gone viral, trending #1 for several days as it received over six hundred thousand views in less than two days. A huge figure bearing in mind Greece’s population is ten million.

    The communication strategy of the government and its client media in terms of damage limitation, has been primarily to scapegoat the Larissa station master and secondarily – when the first approach fails – to make the case that this is a chronic problem, and not the responsibility of the current government. But the information that has been coming to light is damning to this narrative.

    According to multiple testimonies of people who are or had been working in the railway in various positions there was a significant drop in security precautions – which were already incomplete and defective – since Nea Dimokratia took office.

    Staff numbers have been cut, resulting in there being just one station master working the shift instead of two. Also, there were monitoring systems in operation until the summer of 2019, when Nea Dimokratia came to power.

    Finally, even the communication tactic of pushing all the blame onto the station master has backfired, as it was proven he was recently hired and put in his position despite lacking qualifications, in a typical Greek manner of “rousfeti”, which refers to politicians doing favors to win over influential constituents.

    The Minister of Transportation, Achileas Karamanlis, a member of one of the three  major political “clans” of Greece, was forced to resign. His resignation however, seems blatantly tokenistic, as he is still included in the Nea Dimokratia ballots to be reelected MP in the forthcoming election.

    Reflecting particularly badly on him is a video of his speech before Parliament, which surfaced a few days after the tragic events. Just one week before the accident, Karamanlis is heard castigating members of the opposition for even implying that there could be a problem with safety in the railway system.

    The Nea Dimokratia government has shifted its communication strategy and primary narrative a few times already, in an effort to adapt it to the public’s negative reception. But this in itself has undermined their credibility, creating an impression that they are solely focusing on a communication strategy, relying on shills within the mainstream media.

    The situation is still unfolding as the street protests have not finished. There is another general strike proclaimed for Thursday, March 16 and that will be the point when it can be determined whether we are looking at a seismic popular revolt or a de-escalation.

    Whatever the outcome, the Mitsotakis government has suffered a severe blow to their image at the worst possible moment. They are now likely to try and push out the date of the elections as far as May. This is the latest date permitted, but it’s unlikely to leave sufficient time for this affair to blow over.

  • Greece: Refugee Pushback Award Withdrawn

    Continuing tensions in Greece over that State’s handling of the refugee crisis contradicts a carefully constructed public image the ruling right wing Nea Demokrita (New Democracy) wishes to project to a domestic and international audience. The issue of illegal ‘push-backs’ of migrants has continued to generate outrage, controversy, and outright denial in European media. This contradictory policy is reflected in events over this past week, as an attempt by the Greek President to honour a noted refugee-rescuer resulted in swift push-back by members of the ruling party keen to downplay such defiant gestures.

    Technically head of state – although her role is primarily ceremonial – Greece’s first female President Katerina Sakellaropoulou had issued a list of Greek citizens who were to be honoured for their contribution to society in various fields. The conferral ceremony was part of a wider series of events held last weekend commemorating the forty-seventh anniversary of the restoration of Greek Democracy.

    Those chosen to be honoured were drawn from various fields, including academia, medicine, and the arts.  Amongst them was activist Iasonas Apostolopoulos, who over several years has been working as a sea rescuer of refugees around the Mediterranean Sea. Currently working with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) on such missions, Apostolopoulos has previously received honors for his humanitarian actions from the Mayor of Palermo, and the Danish Navy.

    He was invited to attend the ceremony on Saturday 24th of July at the Presidential Hall. According to his testimony, however, he received a phone call from the Ministry of the Exterior on Friday 23rd July –  after midnight – informing him he would not be decorated after all. Not only was this a highly unusual turn of events, but Apostolopolous had already been publically named as a recipient of this public honour. The cancellation was bound to stir controversy.

    Worryingly, hours before Apostolopoulos had been informed by phone news of the cancellation was leaked on Twitter and Facebook by Konstantinos Bogdanos, a member of parliament from the ruling party of Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy). In his post, Bogdanos described the refugee rescuer as an ‘aggressive critic of the border policy and our security corps,’ and attached social media posts of Apostolopoulos critical of the well-documented illegal push backs by the Greek authorities, which have been linked to refugees drowning at sea.

    The process of “pushing back” is designed to prevent migrants from arriving in a jurisdiction, or immediately returning them once they have arrived there. It prevents asylum seekers from declaring themselves as such, from presenting papers or other documents to the authorities, or even from receiving basic first aid or other essentials such as food, medicine and drinking water.

    The practice has become all too commonplace as ‘Fortress Europe’ attempts to prevent and discourage the movement of victims of war and its economic consequences, and, increasingly, climate change.

    Mediterranean countries such as Greece and Italy justifiably claim the burden of dealing with the refugee crisis has fallen disproportionately on them, a situation exacerbated by the regulations surrounding the Dublin Protocol and the increasing militarization of Frontex, the European Border Patrol Agency.

    This burden has also fallen on non-EU Turkey, which is commonly believed to be foisting refugees onto their Greek neighbours, who in turn are forcing these unfortunate travellers back into the jurisdiction of the Turkish Coast Guard. The fear, frustration and terror suffered by those on the receiving end of these often fatal tactics is unimaginable.

    Pushback by Greek security forces has received wide attention in the international media, and a recent Oxfam report from June 2021 described the practice of pushbacks at the Greek border are ‘persistent and systematic’.

    Nonetheless, Minister of Migration and Asylum, Notis Mitarachi, has claimed that these allegations are ‘clearly unfounded’, despite eyewitness testimony, mobile phone footage from on board migrant vessels being attacked, and the testimony of the Turkish Coast Guard and other authorities. The practice was also thoroughly investigated in a recent New York Times article, less than a week before Apostolopoulos was defamed as a traitor to his country.

    The influential journalist Elena Akrita attended the ceremony. The following Sunday, she posted her response on her Facebook page: ‘What is 100% cross referenced is that the entire Far Right section of Nea Dimokratia fell on top the issue. They riled up a big fuss and managed to take his name off the list.’

    The affair has brought a wave of outrage on social media, and is bound to reach the chambers of Parliament over the coming days and weeks, as left wing parties SYRIZA and MERA25, have already issued statement demanding explanations.

    To some extent Apostolopoulos’s exclusion has backfired on those behind it, as it has brought the issue of illegal pushbacks of refugees back into Greek public discourse, and indeed the wider world.

    The plight of refugees seems to be forgotten by those justifying the tactic of preventing safely landings on Greek territories such as Lesbos.

    In reponse to this controversy, Iason Apostolopoulos made the following statement to independent media The Press Project:

    Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of time to deal with whatever is going on in Greece. At the moment I am in the central Mediterranean Sea on board the rescue boat Geo Barents, of Doctors Without Borders.
    Our priorities here are different. Since the 2nd of July, we are pinned down by Italian maritime police in Augusta port, they won’t let us sail, we can’t even come ashore and they keep us anchored.
    A few miles away, hundreds of people every day struggle for the lives on decrepit blow up boats, facing the waves but also the utter indifference of European authorities.
    Any people who manage to survive, are returned to the slave markets and torture centers of Libya, in joint operations of Frontex and Libyan Navy.
    This is the reality that we are experiencing and whoever doesn’t want us to talk about it, is covering up and essentially supporting a European border regime which everyday produces mass death, violence and misery.

    The debate over the tactics the EU is using to discourage migrants from attempting to reach its borders will continue. In the meantime, activists like Apostolopoulos can expect varying levels of opposition from state actors. Events in Greece this past week have shown how deep the divisions are between those seeking humanitarian solutions and those seeking complete control of the narrative around the refugee crisis.

    Feature Image: Felipe Lopes