Two years after the Tempe rail tragedy we still don’t have a clear picture of what happened on the fateful night of February 28, 2023, nor of what followed. Up to today, revelations and disproved claims, experts and self-proclaimed “experts,” separate groups of victims’ families and other agencies, are looking for ways to strike their rivals, to confirm their version of events. The opportunity for unifying action, for a united stand against the horror born of our national sloppiness, was lost at the start, with the government being chiefly to blame.
Since then, though, without our ignoring the government’s mismanagement of the crisis, much responsibility lies on the shoulders of opposition parties, which grabbed the opportunity to vilify the government continually without being burdened with the task of proposing some serious policy that would release the nation from the fear of a repetition of what happened at Tempe, at Mati (wildfire), at Mandra (floods) and at so many other places in the past.
The initial impression is that this is a game in which one side hits the other, which reciprocates. The two sides alternate at the top of the table of ephemeral impressions and, in the end, we will have winners and losers and the spectators will go home and carry on with our lives. In reality, everyone is contributing towards exhausting the last reserves of citizens’ faith in politics, justice, experts, news media, even friends who have a differing opinion.
At this point, the confusion works only in favor of the so-called anti-systemic forces. When new evidence seems to confirm their claims, they gain greater credibility; when it disproves them, this is seen as yet more proof of a “concentrated coverup” of the truth. When everyone – government, parties, experts – helps undermine trust in the “system,” everyone chooses what to believe. And many choose to believe those who, in the general uncertainty, appear absolutely sure of themselves, of what happened and who is to blame.
A truly awful event becomes a steppingstone for extreme rhetoric, accusations, fantasies. Envying the dynamism that such forces acquire, other parties (“systemic” and otherwise), try to imitate them, managing only to strengthen the anti-systemic current. In our country we see how other parties try to imitate Zoe Konstantopoulou, who does this all so much better than they can. Throughout Europe we see how extreme rightwing positions are adopted by centrist parties, thus legitimizing formerly marginal forces.
In fog, we need fixed points to move forward safely. In the case of Tempe, the tracks of bad habits lead only to new danger.