A couple of days ago, a tragedy struck when two trains collided into one another in Athens. This came about as a shock to many citizens within Athens. However the response stirred even more commotion. Both police and protestors are currently in violent clashes against each other: protestors are throwing petrol bombs being thrown towards the police and in response the police are shooting innocent civilians. These clashes come about as a grave shock. However the key question is, what does this hold for Greece’s future and will this violence continue?
The key conflict that arose came about after dozens of people were killed in a head-on collision between a freight train and a passenger train carrying over 350 people on board on the 28th February, Greece’s worst-ever rail disaster. As of now there have been 84 people in critical condition and as many as 57 have passed away. The government called this an accident due to “a human error”. However, the quality of railword work was brought into question after examining the scene more closely and has been blamed on the lack of funding, placing the blame on the government. The public has gone against the government after that response was given, turning to violent protests to get legislative or economic action to resolve this issue. But is there really an easy solution?
Protestors taking to the streets to respond to the train crash and lack of funding
To understand more about the conflict we have to look at Greece as a country and consider the events that led to this moment. Greece is a country located in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 10.7 million people split amongst several islands with mainland Greece hosting the capital Athens. It also happened to be one of the least economically developed countries as it suffered gravely from the 2008 market crash where Greece had to ask for loans from the central bank to just financially sustain itself. As of now 372 billion USD which is higher than most countries if looking proportionally to its GDP (200 Billion USD). However it may be argued that in comparison to 2008 there have been improvements to several industries, in particular subsidies into green energy which have proven to be effective. Nonetheless, this heavily impacted how politics was run and established within Greece and the promise to resolve economic instability was the campaign of many politicians. In terms of politics, Greece is currently led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was elected in 2019 as the leader of the New Democracy party. Mitsotakis had been implementing various reforms aimed at boosting economic growth, such as reducing taxes and cutting red tape. These reforms are key in understanding how the current money is being used.
Initially it seems that there has been progress made economically and welfare wise when it comes. However, there are also concerns about economic inequality and social unrest. In recent years, there had been protests and strikes by various groups, including workers, students, and pensioners, who were unhappy with the government's policies.As a result a lot of public services and industries in Greece are severely underfunded which means that industries such as healthcare,education and safety were not developed. Safety and healthcare have been the key following issues after the crippling economy which worries Greeks. These are two major industries that most of the public relies on. If underfunded it would mean that people are more likely to switch to other industries or alternatively move somewhere else. This shrinking labour force would mean that less people could help out and improve the systems and infrastructures in place to improve the welfare of people.
The Police in Greece trying to push away protestors using shields
So the question is how does this all tie to what happened recently? Thousands of people took to the street the very next day to protest this. The issue with underfunding these key industries is that many people rely on them and as a result if the government does not want to improve or change the available funding to the public, the public will get angry. However it is not only the primary users and stakeholders of this industry but also the employees. Railway workers, who also lost their fellow colleagues in the accident, have staged rotating walkouts in criticism of cost-cutting and underinvestment in the rail infrastructure, a legacy of Greece’s debilitating debt crisis from 2010 to 2018. This means that for about a decade industries were blatantly ignored and pushed aside for other more developed industries. However what is worse is that it seems that the government is trying to suppress this issue by using police brutality and force to directly and physically make the protestors voiceless. Though it is a complex topic many innocent people were involved in the cross fires and the fatalities are only prolonged if the violence continues.
So what will happen next? Though initially it may seem that the easy way out is to increase funding into the rail industry, considering the complex economic situation, this could perhaps create a cyclical spiral of debt and will only cripple the economy more. Perhaps there must be an international monetary scheme or humanitarian aid. Needless to say it is a multilateral issue and as of now no response in how the government will tackle this issue was given.
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