1 of 1 Demonstration in Athens on March 16, 2023 — Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Demonstration in Athens on March 16, 2023 — Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced this Tuesday (21st) that parliamentary elections would be called in May, three weeks after a railway disaster that caused outrage in the country.
“I can say with certainty that the elections will take place in May,” Mitsotakis, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, told broadcaster Alpha.
On February 28, a train collision killed 57 people and sparked a wave of antigovernment protests in Greece.
The term of office of the conservative government, which has been in office for almost four years, ends in July.
According to local media, the government had planned to hold elections in April, but the rail disaster, the deadliest in the country’s history, forced plans to change.
Responsibility for the accident was mainly attributed to the station’s night supervisor, who was taken into preventive detention.
Train crash in Greece kills 36, injures dozens
But experts and the press are accusing Mitsotakis’ government of failing to act in four years to remedy the chronic shortcomings of Greece’s rail system.
Struck by a management of the tragedy seen as disastrous, Mitsotakis pledged “absolute transparency” in the judicial investigation.
Greece was already in the preelection phase when a wiretapping scandal broke last summer that dealt a serious blow to the prime minister’s office.
Since then, the leftwing opposition has been calling for the elections to be brought forward.