Greece General elections will be held next May, as confirmed by the conservative Greek prime minister. Kyriakos MitsotakisIn his first meeting since the train accident on February 28 57 people died and this caused a wave of protests against the Government.
“I can definitely say that elections will be held in May”Mitsotakis said in an interview with Alpha TV channel.
Although the legislature ends in June, elections have long been expected to be held on May, possibly the 21st.
My goal is to win re-election and I think we will achieve that.The leader of the New Democracy party, who has had a decline in voting intentions since the accident, said.
Recent polls give New Democracy three points over left-wing Syriza, half of what it had before the event.
anger wave
The tragedy caused a wave of public outrage. strikes and mass protests almost daily.
Protesters blame the Executive for the lack of security and control systems on the rail network.
The Conservative government accused Syriza of delaying improvements to its rail network while in power (2015-2019).
parliamentary committee investigating why has the so-called “717 contract” not yet been fully fulfilled?signed by the state railway company (OSE) in 2014 to establish a set of automatic safety measures in the Athens-Thessaloniki section where the accident occurred.
The Railroad Regulatory Authority (RAS) released a report last Friday stating that 73 station managers temporarily hired under the current government saw “lack of preparation” by OSE prior to taking office.
Among them was the station manager, who admitted to the prosecution that he had put the passenger train on the same track as a freight train, causing a head-on collision minutes later, killing 57 people.
Mitsotakis initially defended the thesis that the accident was caused by human error, and for now4 employees sued It resulted in the railroads colliding, including the stationmaster who put a passenger train and a freight train on the same track.
Faced with pressure from the street, Mitsotakis eventually apologized and admitted that security systems were lacking in much of the rail network, such as the section where the accident occurred.
Still, the prime minister said today that he never thought of resigning.