Greek elections-Survey: Anger among the young after Tempi

It is a quantitative research with scientific manager Loukia Kotronaki, lecturer and post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Political Science and History of Panteion University. The survey was conducted across the country in April 2023 (April 12 – 19) and the survey data was collected by aboutpeople.

Anger, despair and shame after Tempi – The new generation takes political responsibility

The main findings of the research, per thematic section, are as follows:

– Anger (43.7%) is the dominant emotion felt by young men and women, a month and a half after the fatal train accident. This is followed by despair (19.7%) and the feeling of shame (17.4%).

– The young generation does not accept that responsibility for the accident is limited to the fault of the station master, but assigns political responsibility. 59.5% answer that the current government is responsible, 58.3% all previous governments and only 13.1% answer that the station master is mainly responsible.

Participation in mobilizations after the accident

– 3 out of 8 people answered that they participated in the collective protest actions for the accident in Tempi (demonstrations, strikes, symbolic actions in memory of the victims, etc.). Young women had a higher percentage of participation in the mobilizations than young men.

– 13.6% participated in a demonstration for the first time. The percentage is even higher among women (16.3%) and remains high among 25-34 year olds (11.5%).

– 1 in 3 people answered that they participated in an organized block of student coordinators, student associations, labor unions or political party/organization.

– 5 out of 10 people were informed about the protests mainly from Social Media, with Facebook (67.4%) and Instagram (57.2%) being the most popular sources of information.

The feeling of safety for transport was affected

– Regardless of participation or not in the mobilizations, the accident affected the opinion of young people on a number of critical issues (reliability of the state, future of the country, government, parties, privatization, etc.) in high percentages ranging from 60 – 80% .

– The feeling of safety for transport was more affected (87.6%).

– To the question 'what do you think needs to change to make transport safe?', the responses demonstrate young people's disapproval of rail privatisation. The majority is in favor of the renationalisation of the passenger sector, as a whole, with a percentage of 38.3%.

- Also, 70% of participants and respondents in the research, agree with the opinion that the police dealt with the protest actions for Tempi with excessive force.

Crisis of trust in institutions

- After the accident, the crisis of trust in institutions intensifies, with the government (75.4%) and political parties (88.5%) gathering the highest rates of mistrust.

- Similar are the findings for the media, with young men and women turning their backs on television (86.7%) and newspapers (72.2%), while preferring informational sites (59.3%) and their social and family environment (54%).

– The biggest problem they consider the country faces is accuracy (69.4%), followed by corruption (58.3%).

Elections

- From the findings of the research, a left-wing positioning of young people emerges, while neoliberalism registers very low popularity rates (4.3%). At the same time, however, 22.2% answer "no ideology, I believe in the individual", while 19.3% gather "I don't know/don't answer".

– 82.1% of young people say they intend to vote in the May 21 elections. 77.5% intend to vote in a possible second ballot if no government is formed after the upcoming elections.

Artist mobilizations & university police

– 77.2% agree with the months-long mobilizations of artists for their professional rights and studies.

– 50.3% of young people answer that they disagree or rather disagree with the government's choice to establish the university police, while 35.2% agree or rather agree.

What is the purpose of the survey?

The survey is part of Eteron's new project "Youth – Voice On", which is a continuation of project “Gen Z – Voice On”, focusing on a larger age range of 17 – 34 year olds. Its findings add to the perspective surrounding youth participation in protest actions following the tragic accident as well as the broader effects they may have on social and political processes, as stated in a related press release.

The director of Eteron, Gavriel Sakellaridis points out: "The tragic accident in Tempi caused a wave of moral shock in Greek society and released a series of intense negative emotions. The youth was the social category that experienced this shock in the most intense way. Eteron, trying to trace the social and political effects of the Tempi disaster on the youth, produced an analytical study from which critical and useful conclusions emerge. Just two months after the tragic accident, the memory remains fresh despite the fragmentation and disorientation of public opinion. It is important to know the attitude of the youth to these events – which come and fall in a series of experienced crises – so that we do not fall from the clouds by their reactions”.

Referring to the conclusions of the research, Loukia Kotronaki emphasized: "The emotions that dominated the young generation after the tragic accident were anger and shame. The transformation of anger into a moral imperative for active action explains the mass entry of people without previous organizational membership in the protest […]. Emotions alone are not enough to give collective action duration over time. It is necessary to have stable (organizational) spaces of solidarity and reciprocity, spaces to carry out the process of building collective identities and value frameworks".