Rail safety activist Maria Karystianou submitted on Tuesday the declaration for the founding of her new party to the Supreme Court, coming one step closer to running in the next general elections, set for 2027.
The party, named “Hope for Democracy” has a strong on anti-establishment rhetoric and support for policies ranging from animal welfare to fighting price-gouging and corruption. It was launched on May 21, collecting 650 signatures at an event in a packed cinema theater in Thessaloniki.
“Politics was created to serve the citizen within a framework of respect and dignity. Greece is a wonderful country, we are all Greece and together we can create a new path of hope, optimism and perspective” Karystianou told journalists as she left the courthouse.
“We have nothing to do, as they want to present us, with protest parties where they simply concentrate the anger and disappointment of the people. We were created to transform the need for change into action, so that words such as democracy, justice, social cohesion are not empty of content, but become a pillar of our everyday lives.”
The 53-year-old pediatrician’s 19-year-old daughter was among the 57 victims of the 2023 Tempe rail accident – a head-on smash between a passenger train and a freight train that had been allowed onto the same track, speeding in opposite directions.
