- Title: Greece to hold national election on May 21 - PM
- Date: 28th March 2023
- Summary: LARISSA, GREECE (MARCH 1, 2023)(REUTERS) VARIOUS DRONE VIEWS OF TRAIN CRASH THAT KILLED 57 ATHENS, GREECE (MARCH 8, 2023)(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTEST IN ATHENS OVER TRAIN CRASH, PROTESTERS IN FRONT OF PARLIAMENT, PROTESTERS CARRYING A VEIL WITH CARNATIONS AND THE NAMES OF THOSE THAT DIED
- Embargoed: 11th April 2023 10:23
- Keywords: ELECTIONS GREECE
- Location: VARIOUS, GREECE, STRASBOURG, FRANCE
- City: VARIOUS, GREECE, STRASBOURG, FRANCE
- Country: Greece
- Topics: Europe,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA008084428032023RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called parliamentary elections for May 21, saying on Tuesday (March 28) he wanted a clean slate to push through further reforms after four years at the helm.
Mitsotakis's New Democracy Party has held a comfortable lead over opposition leftist Syriza, headed by Alexis Tsipras, since it came to power in 2019, but a Feb. 28 rail disaster which killed 57 people has stirred public anger and seen that gap narrow.
"The country and its citizens need clear horizons... the national elections will be held at the end of the four-year term, as I had committed from the start," Mitsotakis told a televised cabinet meeting.
The rail disaster on the Athens-Thessaloniki route, Greece's deadliest on record, sparked mass protests over the safety shortcomings of an underfunded and poorly maintained network, the legacy of a decade-long financial crisis which ended in 2018.
Mitsotakis said the 'painful and traumatic' experience of the rail disaster highlighted deficiencies the state still had.
“Certainly there were mistakes, we are here to correct them, and I would say that our slogan from now on is: “We go forward together, changing Greece, without compromise and with more courage," said Mitsotakis.
The May 21 poll will take place under a newly introduced system of proportional representation. That system makes it difficult for a party to gain a clear majority, setting the stage for a second, run-off round that will take place "at the latest by early July," the premier said.
So far, Mitsotakis's New Democracy party is leading in opinion polls over the main opposition, the leftist Syriza party that ruled Greece in 2015-2019 at the peak of its debt crisis. But a deadly train crash on Feb. 28 showed its lead over Syriza shrinking.
Polls since January give New Democracy up to 35.6% and Syriza up to 30.7%. The Socialist PASOK party, with Nikos Androulakis at the helm, who is also a member of the European Parliament, ranks third with its ratings ranging between 9.3% and 13.9% in recent months.
In each poll, however, no party comes close to the 46% percent widely believed to be needed to establish a majority in the 300-seat parliament.
(Production: Deborah Kyvrikosaios) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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