“You would see those black balloons going up into the sky and you would cry without realizing it. Eyes opened, running like cranes, you shuddered and tried to realize what was happening: Why am I here? Why is this happening?

25 year old legal trainee John Kalogirou was found last Saturday Syntagma Square. “I went to the demonstration – it was mourn. Children my age were unfairly lost,” he says, and notes that for several days now he has had a huge knot in his stomach and throat, because “you don’t know what will dawn.” To add: “It’s unbelievable what anger this feeling of negligence and guilt phobia evokes in you.”

The message she wanted to convey by her presence at Syntagma Square was as follows:No more tolerance, no more responsibility. We will no longer tolerate irresponsibility and indifference at the expense of our future and – now – at the expense of our lives.”

Joanna adds that she identified with the victims because “it could have been anyone: friend, family, anyone.”

“The victims may not have been someone I know, but you still mourn them. our fellow citizens who they were lost in the most useless way. It can be anyone, and it causes incredible horror: even the lack of comfort and confidence to use the funds to move from one city to another.

“My goal is to leave as soon as possible”

“After the incident at Tempe, you feel – especially if you were on this train – very strongly how little our lives really mean. It could have been us, each of us,” a 21-year-old Athens law student tells K. George Passas and emphasizes: “When a problem comes to you and you can identify with the sufferer, it hits you harder.”

George went to a demonstration last Sunday at Syntagma. Why did he feel this need? “It was a mixed feeling of anger and disgust at how things turned out — what came out of the investigations and how the government responded to the report,” he says, noting: “My disappointment with everyone led me on my way“.

“I think that the state does not pay attention to us. And this applies not only to young children, but also to a specific social group that travels by public transport. There are very specific people who will make the Athens-Thessaloniki journey by train and I think many times they are “on the spit”. If it concerned stronger social groups, then the railway network could not be in such a state,” he notes.

A few days after the tragedy, the 21-year-old girl posted a text on Facebook informing her of this. his decision not to vote in the upcoming elections. “My logic is not aphoristic, I do not believe that any political message will be sent to the system, in any case, gaps, voids and abstentions have no practical significance,” he emphasizes, adding that he does not trust the two parties in power. and among their presidents and from the smaller parties there is no one who expresses it.

He suggests that the Tempe tragedy brought to the surface the hidden frustration of his generation and the willingness of many to leave the country, while at the same time highlighting strong professional insecurities: “It’s a combination: little money, high cost of living. My goal is to leave as early as possible so that I may return in the future from a different position.”

“I can be among the dead too”

“I felt the need to be close to the people who came to the Constitution to express my grief and protest, because it could be me among the dead, it could be you, it could be our brothers, our friends,” says the 25-year-old Konstantin Alefantina theater school student who is also involved in coordinating Chiller’s activities.

Konstantina went to the Sunday meeting at Syntagma: “The dynamics were huge when unions, student associations, creative professions, political organizations came down. They created a huge wave and launched black balloons into the sky in honor of the dead, at the same time the Moscow Art Theater attacked those who peacefully demonstrated, not paying attention to the fact that there were also small children.

She emphasizes: “If you ask me if I feel safe in my country, I will answer you a big no. Once again, it seems that human life does not take into account corporate profits. The nakedness of the state and its discrediting makes me feel vulnerable and want to leave the country. But on the other hand, I want to fight injustice and corruption, and I feel that we all have an obligation to do so. People really only die when you forget them and dead in Tempe should not sink into oblivion. Nobody should be silent.

“Big Why”

21 year old law student Angel Petrovas he could not go to any of the demonstrations due to health problems, but he had every intention of doing so, given that public opinion identified itself with the victims of the Tempe tragedy: “All these human losses were given very easily, this accident could have been to avoid. This creates a huge “why” in the whole societynot just us young people, but all people – we all screwed up.”

“We have all taken this line many times. I’m alone, five times in the last year. If I wasn’t sick, I planned to go to Thessaloniki. I would be on the return train“, he emphasizes.

And he adds that “we realized that a lot of things are failing in the country, but this also has its limits, you can’t be sure the train will arrive. There was nothing terrible, a strong earthquake for example. But leaving to go to work, home, it will not work. This cannot continue, in principle, this should not have happened. This is something that can neither be overcome nor forgiven.”

“We can’t stand ridicule anymore”

“I went to two demonstrations on Friday and a series of demonstrations in general,” the 22-year-old philosophy student tells K. Phoeb Zades.

“The first and main emotion that made me go to the protests was anger – when such a tragic accident happens, anger becomes too much. It also gives us a reason to do something – to go out, to do something in our school or in the community. We want that anger to be a force for subversion,” said the 22-year-old, who is also the board’s elected secretary for philosophy.

“My generation is one of the most educated, and we do everything to be educated. As long as we have master’s degrees, doctoral degrees, a lot of knowledge and experience, we are forced to work 2-3 jobs at the same time and at the same time we are bullied. So whatever happens at this time is anger.”

He speaks of ridicule and expresses intense disappointment as “we lost nine of our fellow students in AUTH and the minister of education didn’t say anything.” And he adds: “We held an action at Philosophy, asking for maintenance of the building for 500 signatures. Heating has been operating since 1987, but the Ministry of Education ignored us … “.