The ruling classes usually do everything they can to prevent catastrophic accidents from appearing as what they often are: products of the normal functioning of capitalism. As such, they reveal the dark side of the system and fuel social unrest, as Gregor Kritidis shows in the case of the worst rail disaster in Greek history.
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On February 28, 2023, an intercity train coming from Athens collided with an oncoming freight train near Tempi. 57 people died and more than 80 were injured, some of them seriously. Among the dead and injured were many students from Thessaloniki who were visiting the capital for the long weekend. In the days that followed, there were spontaneous strikes and protest demonstrations against the catastrophic conditions on the railways since the crisis years after 2008.
Digital safety systems have been installed with EU funding, but most of them do not work; staffing levels have been drastically reduced and new hires are poorly qualified due to patronage and nepotism; maintenance and monitoring of trains and tracks are in some cases inadequate. The fact that there have been no major accidents is due to the dedication of the railway workers, who work overtime to fill the gaps in the system. The union had repeatedly pointed out the many safety deficiencies and had taken industrial action. However, the courts ruled that these were ‘abusive.’
The conservative Mitsotakis government responded to the protests with the same old repressive tactics it has used since the surveillance scandal shortly after taking office in 2019: demonstrations were broken up by the police, and critical voices were defamed as ‘conspiracy theorists.’
The ‘Mitsotakis system’
There is a system. Whether it’s the forest fires in the summer, the floods in the winter, the bribery scandals at Novartis and Siemens, or the collaboration of the judiciary and the police with the mafia: everything is covered up and obfuscated, critics are threatened, victims are criminalized, scapegoats are sought, and those responsible are not punished but promoted. Responsibility is sought in ‘foreign powers’ such as Turkey and Russia, or the racism card is played.
An example of this is the Pylos disaster, which is often mentioned in the same breath as the ‘Tempi crisis’: In the summer of 2023, more than 600 refugees died in a shipwreck off the coast of Greece when the coast guard tried to illegally drag the ship back into international waters. The survivors were charged with smuggling, while those responsible were not prosecuted.
The hitherto compliant private media and the public broadcaster ERT, controlled by the prime minister and his confidants, always helped to push the government’s version of events. A fragmented and toothless opposition in parliament, as well as intimidation and threats against the extra-parliamentary opposition, did the rest to stabilize the ‘Mitsotakis system.’
Although it was obvious that the accident was not caused by ‘human error,’ as the government claimed, this critical awareness among the population was obscured by a cover-up of the specific circumstances and by media propaganda. Just a few weeks after the disaster, the ‘Tempi crisis’ had disappeared from public view. The father of one of the victims put it succinctly when he said that it seemed unreal to him, as if the disaster had never happened and his child was lying unharmed in his room.
With the parliamentary left fragmented since its political bankruptcy in 2015, the New Democracy government has remained unchallenged. For this reason, the political initiative has shifted from party politics to the social sphere. An important role in this has been played by the counter-public sphere that has developed in social media, especially since the crisis years after 2008.
Resistance from society
The association of survivors and relatives of the victims ‘Tempi 23’ has become a center of resistance, consistently pursuing the investigation of the disaster. The organization is represented by Maria Karystianou, a pediatrician from Thessaloniki who lost her 20-year-old daughter Marthi in the accident and has since become an icon of resistance for her calm and persistent manner. She is supported by the grassroots trade unions and the extra-parliamentary left, which has proven to be an influential and stable factor.
In January 2025, she managed to organize demonstrations in just a few days that far exceeded the mobilizations during the years of the economic crisis and forced Mitsotakis to take a public stand. The protests were fueled by the publication of an expert report which proved that many of the victims had survived the collision of the trains and had only died as a result of the explosion at the site of the accident and the subsequent fire on the train. A young woman who had been trapped in the wagons called the emergency call center and reported that she was running out of oxygen – the explosion had deprived the surrounding air of oxygen. A harrowing document that fueled social unrest.
The situation was further aggravated by arrogant and cynical comments from the government. Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, for example, claimed that the families were only interested in extorting higher compensation payments from the state. In fact, the victims had to pay for the sometimes lengthy medical treatment out of their own pockets.
Illegal business with solvents
A key question is how the massive explosion at the site could have happened. Although the government has yet to provide a plausible explanation for the cause of the explosion, there is an obvious theory, supported by a study conducted by the University of Ghent and the official investigation report on the circumstances of the accident: according to this theory, a rail car carrying an illegally transported solvent triggered the explosion. Such solvents are traditionally used in Greece to adulterate gasoline.
Although 300 cubic meters of soil were removed in a hurry, contrary to the regulations for such accidents, aromatic hydrocarbon residues were found at the accident site; firefighters had burns indicating solvent exposure. In addition, there are eyewitness reports and, last but not least, the video of the explosion and photos of the subsequent fire.
In recent years, customs authorities have seized tons of illegally transported solvents, especially at the Bulgarian border. One possible place of production would therefore be the Burgas refinery, the largest in the Balkans. The refinery is still owned by the oil company Lukoil and is therefore subject to Western sanctions against Russia. Another possibility is that the solvent comes from the Thessaloniki refinery. This is owned by Hellenic Petrolium, which is owned by the Greek state and the holding company of the richest Greeks, the Latsis family.
Mafia-like ‘gray’ and ‘black’ economies
There are also reasons for the surplus of aromatic hydrocarbons in refinery production processes: In 2005, the EU reduced the permissible proportion of these substances in gasoline from 45 to 35 percent by volume. The main reason for this was the emission of pollutants into groundwater. As the market for adhesives, paints and varnishes, which use solvents in their production, is not expected to grow significantly, the amount of by-products that need to be disposed of is likely to increase. It is therefore likely that the already flourishing illegal trade has expanded. Experts estimate that the Greek state loses 2.5 billion euros a year in tax revenue due to the mixing and illegal trade of fuels.
So there are good reasons for the elaborate cover-up of the causes of the Tempi accident. The New Democracy government is deeply involved in these illegal activities and it is hard to imagine that it will be able to stay in office much longer, especially as the cover-up scandal continues to grow. For example, there have been three mysterious deaths related to the investigation into the cause of the accident, including the head of operations of Hellenic Railways and the son of Larisa’s chief prosecutor. The latter had launched an investigation against officials of the Ministry of Transport in December 2024. At the end of December, her son disappeared during a walk and was found dead in a remote area in March this year. The family – the victim’s uncle is honorary president of the highest court, the Areopagus – speaks of threats against the lawyer and assumes that it was a kidnapping and murder.
The struggle for the investigation of the Tempi accident and against Mitsotakis’ authoritarian state is so explosive because it is directly linked to the struggle against the mafia-like ‘gray’ and ‘black’ economies that, as Michael Krätke has explained, form the underside of global capitalism. This process has only just begun. But the Mitsotakis government is on its last legs and will hardly be able to hold on in the medium term. Greek society, across all social milieus, is demanding truth and justice.