After Greece's worst train crash, young Greeks rally for change ahead of elections

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/ [login to see] /greece-train-collision-young-greeks-protest
High school junior Stella Dourou would typically be in class on a weekday. But on a recent Thursday morning, Dourou marched through downtown Athens, alongside her classmates and tens of thousands demonstrating in the Greek capital.

"We're protesting for all the lives lost for no reason," said Dourou, who knew one of the 57 people killed in last month's train collision, the deadliest in Greece's history.

Outrage over the collision — which many see as the result of government neglect of railway safety systems and protocols, despite years of warnings from rail unions — has galvanized Greeks of all ages and backgrounds to participate in massive demonstrations across the country, believed to be the biggest since the anti-austerity riots in 2010.

But the tragedy seems to have struck a chord with the country's youth because many of the train passengers were students returning home after a long holiday weekend.

"It could have been me," Alexia Athanasiou, 20, told Greek media the week of the accident, in an impassioned statement that went viral on TikTok.