UPDATE - Greece plans to hold general elections in May: Prime minister

ADDS PRIME MINISTER'S REMARKS ON TRAIN ACCIDENT

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Greece will hold general elections in May, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced late Tuesday.

"I can tell you with certainty that the elections will be held in May, not in July, because it is very likely that a second round will be needed," Mitsotakis said during an interview with private broadcaster Alpha TV.

Asked about opinion polls showing that his Nea Dimokratia (New Democracy) party’s lead is narrowing against the main opposition SYRIZA party, he questioned their credibility.

“I want the second round to form a majority government, which this country needs,” he added.

Referring to the accident on Feb. 28 in central Greece when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train, leaving at least 57 dead, he called it “a tragedy which should never have happened.”

"It is inconceivable how in the Greece of 2023, two trains can be on the same line going in the opposite direction and no one noticed it. And I believe that all citizens have realized -- in their anger and rage -- that this accident is the culmination of many decades of pathology which we now have an obligation to deal with,” Mitsotakis said.

The accident occurred in the town of Tempi near the city of Larissa.

The dead included many university students and nine train crew members.​​​​​​​