Maria Karystianou, whose 19-year-old daughter died in the deadly February 2023 Tempi train crash, greets during an event to announce her political party, Hope for Democracy, in Thessaloniki, Thursday. [Reuters]
Maria Karystianou, a doctor whose daughter died in Greece’s worst train crash in 2023, launched a political party on Thursday as she seeks to harness widespread frustration against Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government.
Karystianou emerged as a leading justice campaigner for victims of the Tempi train crash that killed 57 people, including her 20-year-old daughter Marthi, and stoked deep mistrust of Greece’s political class.
Last year, Karystianou helped bring hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets across Greece in the biggest rallies in years demanding justice over the crash.
A trial is under way involving 36 defendants, including a station master, rail managers and former railway operator executives, on charges ranging from traffic disruption that led to the deaths to negligent manslaughter and causing bodily harm.
