The crash has also prompted anti-government protests over the past week across the country, including one drawing 10,000 people in central Athens on Sunday, demanding better safety standards on the rail network.
A rail employee on duty at the time of last week’s crash has been held in custody pending trial. Labour unions say the country’s rail network has been collapsing under cost-cutting and under-investment, a casualty of the debilitating debt crisis which afflicted Greece from 2010 to 2018.
Authorities have not disputed this, and on Sunday Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged decades of neglect could have contributed to the disaster.
Greece sold its state-owned railway operator under its international bailout programme in 2017 to Italy’s Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. Now called Hellenic Train, the company is responsible for passenger and freight, while Greek state-controlled OSE is responsible for rail infrastructure.
The European Union will provide technical support to Greece to help it modernise its railways and improve safety, EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said on Twitter after speaking to Mitsotakis on Monday.
“Rail safety is paramount,” she said.
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