A month after the train disaster in Greece which killed 57 people and raised a wave of anger against the government, conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, under pressure, announced on Tuesday that legislative elections would be held on May 21.
“The country and the citizens need clear horizons,” said the head of government, in power since July 2019, during a council of ministers.
“There were mistakes, but we are here to correct them,” he acknowledged. “Our motto is now to move forward together,” he pleaded.
The Prime Minister had so far only indicated that the elections, which should make it possible to renew the 300 seats of the unicameral parliament (Vouli), were to be held in May.
The leader of the right-wing New Democracy (ND) party has faced a massive protest movement since the collision between two trains on February 28, a tragedy that left 57 people dead and brought to light serious malfunctions in the railways .
At the height of the demonstrations on March 8, 65,000 people took to the streets, reminiscent of the processions of the early 2010s when, in the midst of the financial slump, Greece had to agree to painful savings measures, prompting the rejection of a population considering itself sacrificed.
“Murderers”
To cries of “Murderers”, the Greeks, especially the young, expressed their indignation with force at what the authorities described as a “national tragedy”.
They are particularly severe with the political class accused of carelessness for decades.
This rail accident is “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” summed up a protester in Athens on March 8, Spyridoula Togia, 30, a college professor.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis was also beaten for his management of the accident, which was deemed calamitous, especially when he said the next day that it was a “tragic human error”.
However, while the station master on duty that evening was charged and remanded in custody after admitting his responsibility, the dilapidated state-owned railway network, the serious delays in modernizing the security and the lack of personnel have been singled out.
A few weeks before the tragedy, the unions had warned of the risk of a serious accident without having been heard by politicians.
Contrite, Kyriakos Mitsotakis has, on several occasions, made his mea culpa and recognized “chronic” failures in the railways.
In a country where justice is regularly accused of bias, he also promised absolute transparency in the ongoing judicial investigation to establish responsibilities.
Some marches degenerated into violent clashes between demonstrators and police, the latter being accused of using disproportionate force.
Deliquescence
Since the disaster, the gap between the ND and its main rival, Syriza, the radical left party of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (2015-2019), has narrowed.
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 polls.
Many Greeks have expressed bitterness at what they see as a decline in public services since the austerity plans imposed by Greece’s creditors to stave off the country’s bankruptcy.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, 55, clarified that a second ballot would be organized “at the latest at the beginning of July” if the first does not allow an absolute majority to be achieved or if the parties having achieved the best scores fail to form a coalition.
Due to two electoral reforms that entered into force successively, the legislative elections of 21 May will indeed be held by simple proportional representation.
In the event of a second ballot, a bonus of seats will be granted to the party that comes first, according to a law passed by the Conservative government.
During his tenure, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose father was himself prime minister in the early 1990s, was also singled out for violations of freedoms, particularly of the press.
He is also at the heart of a telephone tapping scandal which affected hundreds of personalities, including the leader of the socialist party Pasok-Kinal.
Athens has always denied having used the Israeli spyware Predator.