[ad_1]
Greece will hold general elections in May, Prime Minister
Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a television interview on Tuesday,
Trend reports
citing Reuters.
The conservative government’s four-year term expires in July,
and Mitsotakis was widely expected to call an election in early
April.
Opinion polls show his New Democracy party’s lead over the
leftist opposition Syriza party shrinking following Greece’s worst
rail disaster on Feb. 28.
The accident, during which a passenger train and a freight train
collided head on, killed 57 people and stirred anger and mass
protests over railway safety standards.
“I can tell you with certainty that the elections will be held
in May,” Mitsotakis said in interview with Alpha TV, his first
since the disaster.
Tens of thousands of people have rallied across Greece over the
crash, in the largest street protests the government has faced
since being elected in 2019.
Protesters accuse the current government as well as previous
governments of the past decade of turning a blind eye to repeated
calls by unions over safety shortcomings in the railway, a legacy
of Greece’s decade long financial crisis which ended in 2018.
The government has mainly blamed human error. Four railway
workers, including the duty station master, were detained.
Mitsotakis has apologised for a delayed plan to install safety
systems across Greece’s 2,500-km (1,550-mile) rail network.
Mitsotakis said visiting the crash scene was “tough” but that he
did not consider resigning.
“I aim to win elections again and I believe that we will
eventually succeed,” he said.
[ad_2]
Source link