Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced Tuesday evening, March 21, “with certainty that the elections will take place in May”, in an interview with the private television channel Alpha. This declaration comes three weeks after a train disaster that raised crowds against his government. The train collision that killed 57 people on February 28 sparked outrage across the country with tens of thousands on the streets.
The term of the Conservative government, in power for almost four years, expires in early July, according to the Constitution. Mr. Mitsotakis paved the way for another poll in the wake if the first does not achieve an absolute majority, or if the parties with the highest scores fail to form a coalition.
“A second ballot may be necessary. It is very likely,” he said, three weeks to the day after this train accident, the worst in Greece. According to numerous media reports, the government had originally planned to call an election in April but the head-on collision of two trains, the country’s worst rail accident, has shocked Greece and forced the government to revise its plans.
Chronic failures
The accident was attributed primarily to the station manager on duty that evening. He was charged and remanded in custody. But experts and the media have pointed the finger at the responsibilities of the government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, which for four years has not been able to deal with the chronic failures of the railways, and which assured from the outset that the accident was due to “a tragic human error”.
Struck for his management deemed calamitous of this collision, the Prime Minister promised “absolute transparency” in the ongoing judicial investigation to establish responsibilities.
In the processions that chant “assassins” and demand accountability from the authorities accused of negligence or even negligence, calls for the resignation of Kyriakos Mitsotakis are increasing. On March 8, at the “peak” of the mobilization, they were at least 65,000 in the streets shouting their fed up, including 40,000 in the capital.
After work stoppages in several sectors, Greece experienced an almost general strike on March 16 with an almost complete paralysis of transport
The gap is closing in the polls
Many Greeks are alarmed by the decline of public services in a country which, to pay off its debts, had to privatize entire sections of its public sector, including passenger and freight rail transport sold in 2017 to the company Italian public Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane (FS).
The latest polls taken after the accident show that the gap is narrowing in voting intentions between the ruling New Democracy party and the radical left Syriza led by Alexis Tsipras, predecessor of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. With between 28.5% and 30.2% of voting intentions, the ND is only ahead of its main rival by 3.5 to 4.1 points, according to the institutes.
Greece had already entered the pre-election period when a wiretapping scandal broke out in the summer of 2022, which dealt a serious blow to the government. The left-wing opposition has since been calling for the resignation of the government and early elections.