The parliamentary majority of the ruling right-wing New Democracy party voted for an amendment prohibiting protests at the Monument to the Unknown Soldier, which is located near the parliament building in Athens and is often used as a venue for demonstrations.

Recently, the square in front of the monument has become the focus of protests by relatives of the victims of Greece’s deadliest railway accident, which occurred in February 2023 when a freight train and a passenger train traveling in opposite directions collided on the same tracks. The collision killed 57 people, mainly students returning to university after the holidays.

Unfortunately, the collision of the two trains confirmed the protests of railway unionists and KKE MPs in the Greek parliament, who had warned about the lack of necessary safety systems, which the bourgeois state had sacrificed on the altar of big business profits, several days before the tragedy. The slogan “Their profits or our lives”, which has echoed through mass demonstrations since the crime in Tempe, now adorns the banners of trade unions and student associations.

Meanwhile, a makeshift memorial to the victims of the train tragedy has been set up in part of the square in front of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. The victims’ names have been written in red paint on the ground and are surrounded by candles and vases of flowers. Panos Routsis, whose 22-year-old son Deni was killed in the train crash, recently staged on a 23-day hunger strike near the makeshift memorial, demanding that his son’s remains be exhumed for toxicology and DNA tests to determine the exact cause of death. This request was supported by the KKE and most of the opposition parties in Greece. Finally, in early October, the judicial authorities granted permission for the exhumation.

Speaking in parliament, D. Koutsoumbas, GS of the CC of the KKE, said that the real problem for the government is not the alleged preservation of the character of the Monument to the Unknown Soldier. “Your problem is the popular protest and mobilization, as evidenced recently on the occasion of Panos Routsis’ hunger strike and the support for his just demand”, he added. “The momentum of the people who are determined to assert their rights cannot be deterred by laws, amendments, or fences.”

23.10.2025