“We are addressing you as Greeks and as Europeans. Not as supplicants, but as citizens with self-evident rights. We address ourselves with confidence to people who both care and can change things.” -Maria Karystianou

With 1.3 million signatures and a magnificent speech in the European Parliament, Maria Karystianou called on Monday for the appropriate responsibilities, political and criminal, to be attributed for the crime of Tempi. This appeal was quite successful, as the European Parliament’s Committee on Petitions accepted the petition of the Association of Relatives of the Victims of Tempi.

By Dimitrios Karyamis

The Mitsotakis government has done a very good job of covering up this crime, by cleaning up the crime scene in 5 days and continuing their plans by having Karamanlis resign (this was the least that could be done, anywhere else the government would have resigned immediately) and then having the Prime Minister and members of the government make countless statements about how safe the railways are.

Outside the European Parliament, several Greeks living in Belgium gathered to support the efforts of the Association of Relatives of the Tempi Victims for justice. After the assembly of the European Parliament, Maria Karystianou came out together with Konstantinos Arvanitis (MEP of SYRIZA), who informed the people outside the parliament about what happened in the assembly and then Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos made a short speech with Konstantinos Papadakis (MEP of KKE) at his side. Later, representatives and friends together with KKE MEPs opened a sign that read “Listen well government of the New Democracy and EU – No cover-up!” next to the well-known slogan of the Tempi movement “Our lives or their profits.” Then, they raised the letters of the word “JUSTICE” outside the European Parliament.

The police outside the European Parliament broke up the peaceful gathering and asked people and speakers to leave. What was really unacceptable was the identity document check they carried out on Maria Karystianou and the other MEPs.

Yesterday, a very important leap for the vindication of the victims of the Tempi crime occurred, with the European Parliament referring the case to the Committee on Freedoms and Justice, but also to the Transport Committee. The very fair request to impose sanctions on Greece was also approved. The real problem is not to find out ‘who is responsible’ and ‘why it happened’; we have known that for some time now. The real problem is that those responsible for this crime are ruling us, and even to get justice for such an unacceptable and obvious crime we have to seek justice in the EU institutions.

That’s why we have said, we are saying and will continue to say:

THEIR PROFITS OR OUR LIVES!

THIS CRIME WILL NOT BE COVERED UP, WE WILL BE THE VOICE OF ALL THE DEAD!