Greek prime minister calls general election for May 21

Greece’s center-right prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, called a May 21 general election Tuesday as his party’s long-standing lead in opinion polls has declined in the aftermath of the country’s worst train disaster.
A Feb. 28 collision between a passenger train and a freight train in northern Greece left 57 people dead. The disaster stirred public anger, cutting the conservative New Democracy party’s support by a half-point to 4 points over its left-wing main rival, Syriza, according to opinion polls.
Mitsotakis, the son of the late former prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis, has remained popular throughout his four-year term, which was due to end in July.
But more recently, his reputation has been dented by allegations of wiretapping by state security services, as well as the government’s failure to protect rail network safety.