The protests in Greece are taking on ever larger dimensions after the serious train accident with at least 57 deaths. For the second day in a row, the railway workers went on Friday nationwide in a 24-hour strike, as their union announced. On Friday, according to the fire brigade, the salvage work at the scene of the accident in Central Greece will be completed. Coroners tried to identify bodies with the help of DNA tests, police said.

On Thursday evening, several thousand people took to the streets in Athens and Thessaloniki to protest against the dilapidated state of the Greek railways, which they believed led to the disaster. Autonomists hurled incendiary bottles at the police. The situation calmed down on Friday night.

In announcing the strike, the railway workers' union federation denounced the years of neglect of the rail network by the various governments: "Unfortunately, our constant demands for more permanent staff, better training and, above all, the introduction of modern safety technology were simply ignored."

Metro workers in Athens also joined the strike on Thursday, with subways in the capital at a standstill. The metro system suffers from "similar problems" to the railway network, workers said. "Our union has been complaining for years about massive cuts in equipment and spare parts, as well as enormous staff cuts."

Government admits state failure

In Thessaloniki, about 2000 demonstrators gathered on Thursday evening. According to police, Molotov cocktails and stones were thrown, but calm returned afterwards. Around 700 people protested in front of the headquarters of the Hellenic Train in Athens. They commemorated the victims with a minute's silence.

The government, for its part, admitted state failure on Thursday. Delays in modernizing Greece's rail network were due to "chronic" problems and "decades of failure" in administration, government spokesman Giannis Economou said. During the rescue and recovery work, 57 bodies have now been recovered, there is hardly any hope for survivors.

Heated debates and accusations on political talk shows

The protests are also taking on political dimensions. Conservative and left-wing politicians accuse each other in heated talk shows that a system is out of service that stops a train when danger threatens, and thus also protects against human error. Greece's two major parties – the conservative New Democracy and the left-wing Syriza – have ruled the country alternately for the past decade. Nothing in terms of railway safety has been put into action, complains the railway union.

The accident occurred in the night to Wednesday. A passenger train with around 350 people on board had gotten on a track on which a freight train was approaching because of a wrong switch setting. The responsible railway employee has already been charged with negligent homicide. His defence lawyer stated that his client had assumed the part of the responsibility to which he was entitled.