PM ends talk of elections before Easter
Mitsotakis to announce crash victims’ redress, apologizes on behalf of successive governments
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis put an end to speculation of early elections in April before the Orthodox Easter holiday, government sources said on Thursday, as the cabinet met to discuss the implications of the deadly train collision in central Greece last week.
Before the train crash, news reports indicated the most likely date for the polls was April 9.
Mitsotakis said the government has “a busy legislative agenda in the coming weeks,” with some 10 bills going through Parliament. He also said the government would announce support measures for the families of the Tempe rail crash victims next week, while promising to fix long-standing deficiencies in the railway sector. He added that there will be an open probe into the causes of the crash.
By the end of August, he promised to increase staffing levels, implement computerized control systems throughout the railway network, and invest more than 270 million euros in railroad reform.
He again apologized for the accident on February 28 that claimed 57 lives, becoming the country’s deadliest rail disaster.
“I want to reiterate a public apology on behalf of those who ruled the country over the years, and mainly personally. I assume responsibility,” Mitsotakis said.
His remarks were made amid public outrage over the shortcomings and failures that led to the crash and the state’s inability to upgrade the rail network through the years, repeatedly ignoring warnings and calls by railway unions to install and maintain digital safety systems and hire more staff.
The largest street protests the conservative government has faced since taking office in 2019 took place outside Parliament on Wednesday in Athens, Thessaloniki in the north, and other Greek cities.
The government has acknowledged these shortcomings were brought on mostly by neglect and underinvestment, largely due to Greece’s debt crisis of the previous decade, with the PM pledging to conduct an open probe into the causes of the deadly collision.
“We are together in this trial,” Mitsotakis said.
He also stressed that young people and their parents had “every right to be angry,’ but added that this anger should not split society.
“It is important to give room to sorrow and anger. But we should not allow it to become a spark that will cause divisions,” he said.
