ATHENS: The main spokesperson for the victims of Greece’s worst rail tragedy has announced plans for a new political party to combat “corruption and clientelism,” with polls already predicting a strong start.
“The citizens’ movement against corruption and clientelism is being organized and will soon be ready to seek society’s vote,” Maria Karystianou, who lost her daughter in the 2023 disaster, told reporters late Friday.
Opinion polls have shown that a ‘Karystianou party’ could grab between 10 and 30 percent of the vote.
The February 2023 rail disaster in Tempi, central Greece killed 57 people, most of them young students on a passenger train that collided with a freight train in the middle of the night.
The government of conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis swiftly came under fire after blaming a local station master for the accident.
The victims’ families also said valuable evidence was lost when the crash site was bulldozed soon after the accident, leading to claims of an attempted cover-up.
Nearly 40 people will go on trial in March, including railway executives and the station master responsible for directing the trains that night.
They face prison sentences of up to 20 years.
In a statement to AFP in February 2025, Karystianou said, “I am determined to take this to the end,” adding that she has “no faith” in Greek justice and would submit her case to the European Court of Human Rights.
On Friday, the 53-year-old head of the Tempi Victims’ Relatives Association declined to give a timetable for the party’s launch or name.
“When I have something complete — which means I will have a program and people — we will come out and speak,” Karystianou said.
Two former prime ministers — leftist Alexis Tsipras and conservative Antonis Samaras — are also rumored to be preparing parties of their own.