San Francisco Frontiers - Train crash may thwart Greek PM's re-election bid: analysts

A nation heartbroken at the loss of 57 lives has exploded in anger, with tens of thousands taking to the streets in sometimes violent protests Wednesday.

Four people -- three station masters and a rail supervisor -- are facing multiple charges over the February 28 head-on collision, and could be jailed for life.

But public anger has focused on mismanagement and underfunding of the railway network, which critics say is symptomatic of a broader hollowing-out of public services that was triggered by the country's debt crisis.

And, observers say, conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis -- who had looked on course to comfortably win a second term -- may pay a heavy price.

The accident "will have an impact on the government as it has political and ethical responsibility," Stella Ladi, who works at Panteion University in Athens and Queen Mary University of London, told AFP.

During Wednesday's protests in Athens, the biggest the capital has witnessed since demonstrations some years ago in the wake of the eurozone crisis, anger among protesters was palpable.

"People have been under pressure since the financial crisis," Pinelopi Horianopoulou, a striking civil servant who joined the protests, told AFP.

"There are not enough staff."

Understaffing had been a key complaint of railway unions, who had long been ringing alarm bells about the parlous state of the nation's underfunded network.

- Political uncertainty -

But it may not be just Mitsotakis's conservative New Democracy party that is punished at the ballot box.

Ladi said other mainstream parties that have held power in recent years -- left-wing Syriza and the socialists Pasok -- could also suffer losses.

There could be "a protest vote against ruling parties of the last decade, which were unable to address public sector failings", she told AFP.

Mitsotakis was elected in 2019 and, before the train crash, his party held a 7.5 percentage point lead over its closest rivals, Syriza.

The latest polls on voting intentions suggest that while his party is still ahead of Syriza, that lead has narrowed since the train disaster. One poll of 1,241 people carried out last week gives ND 29.6 percent of voting intentions to 25 percent for Syriza.

The 55-year-old's term ends in July and he had already been out campaigning this year, criss-crossing the country and saying the "countdown" to polls had started.

He had been widely expected to call elections on April 9 but, following the backlash triggered by the accident, analysts believe he will delay the polls, possibly to the end of May.

He seems keen to avoid the question for now -- asked when the election date will be set, government spokesman Yiannis Economou said this week that the "issue is not on the prime minister's mind at all".

Ladi said the government's priority currently is "the adoption of measures to comfort victims' families and restore the railway network".

Criticised for intially trying to blame the accident on "human error", Mitsotakis sought forgiveness at the weekend from the victims' families and apologised -- but his words were widely judged to have come too late.

For many observers, when it comes to what will happen in the forthcoming polls, all bets are now off.

"No political analyst is now risking predictions" about the election result, said daily Ta Nea, adding the chances of a single party being able to form a government were weakening.

D.Robinson--SFF