Greece faces a fresh round of mass strikes and nationwide protests on Wednesday as anger mounts over the country’s worst rail tragedy that killed 57 people last week.
Fourteen people remain in hospital after a freight train crashed head-on with a passenger train, carrying mostly students, near the central city of Larissa on February 28.
A station master, who admitted forgetting to reroute one of the trains, has been arrested and charged with negligent homicide and transport disruption. He faces life in jail if convicted.
But public anger remains widespread in Greece over decades of government mismanagement of the rail network and a failure to pursue safety reforms.
On Wednesday, Greek civil servants are to stage a fresh 24-hour walkout alongside doctors, schoolteachers, bus drivers and ferry crew.
Railways will remain paralysed for an eighth straight day, as train workers extend the strike action they launched in the aftermath of the accident.
Last week, protests triggered by the crash saw riot police clash repeatedly with demonstrators, including in Athens. The public order ministry has said talks are being held with protest organisers to avert new violence.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who had been expected to call national elections on April 9, has been widely criticised for laying too much blame on the station master.
Greece’s transport minister resigned on March 1 and Mitsotakis has apologised to victims’ families, pledged to get to the bottom of what happened and embarked on a flurry of public appearances in an apparent bid to soothe anger.