Greece to hold national election on May 21, PM announces

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called parliamentary elections for May 21, saying he wanted a clean slate to push through further reforms after four years at the helm.

Mitsotakis' New Democracy party has held a comfortable lead over opposition leftist SYRIZA since it came to power in 2019, opinion polls show, but a February 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...