Daily Times

The Greek prime minister’s bid for re-election at forthcoming polls may be thwarted by the country’s deadliest train crash, which has sparked mass protests and calls for him to quit. 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.