Following anger over rail crash, Greece calls general election in May

First modification: 03/22/2023 – 02:56

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of Greece, gave the announcement that many had demanded: the country will hold general elections in May. Some elections that will be marked by the railway accident that left 57 dead and enormous collective discontent.

“I can tell you with certainty that the elections will take place in May,” Mitsotakis said in an interview with ‘Alpha TV’, the first he has offered since the disaster.

The prime minister was expected to call an election in early April. But according to what was announced this Tuesday, March 21, they will be given a month later than expected by many.

The Conservative government’s four-year term will end in July. And though his image and popularity have taken a hit since the two trains crashed, he was optimistic that his party would emerge victorious in the election.

“My goal is to win the elections again and I think we will eventually achieve it,” he said.

However, the president’s party, New Democracy, will not have it easy. The most recent polls ―as published by Political― They have shown that the leftist party Syria has reduced the gap since February 28, the date of the accident.

In addition, the portal ‘euractiv’specialized in news from the European Union, documents that polls carried out by MRB and Prorrata show that the prime minister’s bench would only have a 3% advantage.

What happened after the accident?

The accident in which a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train killed 57 people.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have demonstrated against the government and have demanded in the streets not only that it take responsibility for what happened, but also that it reverse the situation of the country’s transportation system.

In the protests, the largest since Mitsotakis came to power in 2019, they point to the government ignoring calls about the deterioration and deficiencies of the rail network.

At first, the prime minister said that it was a human error. However, after the pressure carried out in the streets, he had to come out to apologize and acknowledge the existence of security flaws.

In addition, it took responsibility for delays in a plan to install security systems on the 2,500-kilometre rail network.

But his statements have not calmed the anger of the citizenry that continues to manifest itself almost daily.

found versions

The government has also blamed the leftist Syriza party for delaying improvements to the rail system during its period in power between 2015 and 2019.

At the moment, a parliamentary commission is investigating what has delayed the “717 contract” signed in 2014 by the state railway company (OSE). One that stipulated, as EFE assures, “the installation of a series of automated security measures in the Athens-Thessaloniki section, where the accident occurred.”

For its part, the Railway Regulatory Authority (RAS) published a report last Friday showing that more than 70 station managers were hired with “deficient preparation.”

Among them is the station manager who has pleaded guilty before the Prosecutor’s Office to having put the two trains on the same track.

With EFE, Reuters and local media