00:03Welcome to The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking show.
00:06Greece is paralysed is the claim accompanying this video of a huge crowd in the city of Thessaloniki.
00:14Posts shared in late August and September suggest protests have brought airports, ports, factories and trains across Greece to a
00:22standstill.
00:23The demonstration is real, but this video does not show what's happening now, as the footage is actually from February
00:302025.
00:32It shows protests marking two years since the Tempe train disaster.
00:36The tragedy, which happened in February 2023, killed 57 people when a passenger and freight train collided head-on.
00:45The disaster is still a source of anger in Greece, with a criminal trial beginning earlier this year in the
00:51city of Larissa.
00:52Thirty-six people, including the station master and railway officials, are facing charges connected to the crash,
01:00with relatives of those killed giving evidence and proceedings ongoing.
01:04This footage is taken from an anniversary of the disaster, which brought large demonstrations and prompted a general strike across
01:12Greece.
01:13At the time, flights and trains were indeed cancelled,
01:16But the idea that this is currently some huge uprising against a betrayal of Europe, silenced by the media, as
01:23some posts suggest, is incorrect.
01:25There have, however, since been more recent protests in Thessaloniki.
01:29On 5th September, thousands marched over the cost of living and called for higher wages and pensions.
01:35Those marches coincided with Prime Minister Kyriakos Misotakis' annual speech on the economy in Thessaloniki.
01:42But the footage shared online is not from those marches, nor can it be used as evidence to show that
01:48Greece is currently at a standstill.
