The silent cry in Syntagma Square

On January 26, a strange silence prevailed over Syntagma Square. The slogans were sporadic and limited to some active groups of demonstrators, the inadequate loudspeakers did not project the speeches beyond those around the platform, and even the departure from the area – punctuated by bursts of tear gas – was calm and orderly. All of this points to the obvious. What happened on that Sunday, when thousands gathered in numerous towns in Greece and abroad to demand justice for the victims of the country’s worst railway disaster in Tempe nearly two years ago, was out of the ordinary. And one could see this in the composition of the crowd, which was dominated by families, next-door neighbors, friends from work or the neighborhood who were probably on the street for the first time in their lives. They had come there to express a deep sense of insult: that almost two years after the train crash, the questions about the circumstances – and particularly the official handling – of the accident remain unanswered.

It was a protest by civil society – but that’s not how it was viewed by everyone. The massive participation of the public activated reflexes of concern in the public sphere. Regardless of the rhetorical style, the concern was concentrated on one point: that what happened in Syntagma was a reversal of history in the era of politicized protest marches, in the dynamics of “populism,” in the “exploitation” of a pure feeling of protest by dark and irresponsible political forces. There is an interesting contradiction here. These very same voices of concern casually argued in recent years that Greek society had “matured,” based on the results of the 2019 parliamentary election (which New Democracy won), which were emphatically confirmed in 2023. Apparently, when people vote, they are mature. When they take to the streets, they are immature.

These reactions testify to a deeper substratum of perceptions that was formed during the years of Greece’s economic crisis and is summarized in the idea that popular mobilization constitutes an imminent risk of deviation from the natural order of political and social stability. In this context, democratic control of the respective administration by the citizens is exhausted – or should be exhausted – in the electoral process. It is a position that denies the very history of democratic regimes, that differ from authoritarianism in exactly this: in the possibility of the free expression of social discontent.

But above all, it reveals an inner fear of the dynamic reappearance of crowds in public space. This intellectual background is reflected in a modern global trend where democracy, from a field of confrontation of opposing opinions, shrivels into an intense annoyance with the “other point of view.” Let us not forget the passionate reactions to the big concert organized for the Tempe disaster in the Panathenaic Stadium in October 2024. There, an installed “software” of intolerance was activated that had a strong element of emotional excess. Those who protested about the Tempe railway accident were presented as victims or transmitters of conspiracy theories. The Greek mainstream media, the shapers of public opinion, political figures and journalists focused on that and not on the demand for justice.

Let’s not hide behind our fingers. After Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ television interview last Wednesday about the Tempe disaster, the narrative of conspiracy theories has simply collapsed. Obviously, there are the odd voices in the public sphere that promote conspiracies. However, this does not negate the hard fact that Mitsotakis’ categorical assurance right after the accident that the freight train was not carrying illegal cargo that could have contributed to the fire that consumed the carriages, and the rhetoric that those who talk about such a cargo are dangerous to democracy were revoked by the prime minister himself. This revocation came after Sunday’s mass mobilization and the realization that Greek society has many reasons to believe that there is a problem in our country. Greek rapper Lex says in one of his songs, “Don’t ask what has happened and I don’t trust justice.” This is not populism or absurdity. A trip to the courts is enough to see people’s daily humiliation but, beyond that, let’s think about the cumulative power of the wiretapping scandal and the management of the tragedy in Tempe.

We should feel lucky that there was a mass gathering in Syntagma Square and throughout the country on the symbolic 50th anniversary of the Third Hellenic Republic. The presence of hundreds of thousands of citizens shows interest in the quality of our democracy. Citizens in 2025 are not puppets. There are no omnipotent mechanisms or political parties that can bring all the cities of the country to a standstill at the same time. Citizens choose to participate in something, to invest their time and energy, when they feel that something concerns them and keeps them awake at night. And if anything can divert the course of things toward an uncontrollable situation, it is underestimating the issues. This is the usual mistake of every government that feels safe in the microcosm of power.

In his TV interview, Mitsotakis tried to show that he understands the discomfort of Greek society. But this did not arise from his own initiative. It was the response to the deafening sound of silence that was emitted last Sunday.