The protests have been falsely depicted as anti-migrant as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign.
A video circulating widely on social media falsely claims to show recent mass demonstrations in Greece over the number of irregular migrants and refugees arriving in the country.
One of the posts the Euroverify team detected has been viewed at least 1.2 million times on X and was artificially amplified by several bot-like accounts.
We verified the video and found it in fact shows a 28 February protest near the Syntagma square in central Athens to mark two years since a deadly rail disaster in which two trains collided head-on in the Greek municipality of Tempi.
The incident claimed the lives of 57 people, mostly students. Two years later, victims’ relatives are still waiting for answers and no trial has been held.
Similar demonstrations were seen in cities across Greece on 28 February, with public and private sectors and trade unions striking for 24 hours, bringing many businesses and services to a standstill.
According to estimates, tens of thousands gathered in Athens’ Syntagma Square on that morning. One banner held by a protester read: “Government of murderers.”
Claims that the protesters had taken to the streets over the arrival of irregular migrants and refugees are unfounded, and appear to be part of an engineered disinformation campaign.
Why did the protests erupt?
A long-awaited report released the day before the protests blamed human error, outdated infrastructure and major systemic failures for the 2023 rail crash.
But victims’ families and opposition figures have accused the centre-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of mishandling the investigation and failing to deliver promised reforms.
Public outcry has been mounting, leading to a vote of no-confidence in Mitsotakis’ government last Friday, which was ultimately rejected by parliament.
His ruling party is facing allegations of a potential cover-up: a recent poll suggested that seven out of ten Greeks believe the government is shielding those responsible.
The crash site was reportedly cleared days after the accident, prompting speculation that critical evidence was cleared.
Videos released since the incident show an enormous explosion after the crash, which many say suggests illegal flammable substances were carried by the cargo train that collided head-on with the passenger train.
A forensic investigator hired by victims’ families has claimed 30 of the 57 passengers who perished initially survived the crash, but were then killed in the fire that broke out because of the highly flammable cargo carried in one of the trains.
Last week, the Greek parliament set up an inquiry committee to examine if former Deputy Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Christos Triantopoulos obstructed a previous investigation by ordering the disposal of debris and tampering with the crash site.
What do we know about the disinformation campaign?
The striking scenes of tens of thousands of people gathered in the areas around Syntagma square have been falsely described as an anti-migrant protest.
The X account ‘Radio Europe’, known for spreading misleading and false information, claimed that the video shows a “massive riot in Greece” where demonstrators called for the “resignation of the globalist treacherous government.”
“More than 500 illegal migrants arrive in Greece by boat every day,” the post adds.
We verified this claim against data by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and found that during the week of the protest, 40 migrants and refugees were recorded to have arrived in Greece.
Radio Europe’s post has garnered at least 1.2 million views on X and has also been amplified by a string of bot-like accounts.
We detected the content circulating in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish.
