By Antonis Anzoletou

How do citizens react after a great disaster;

There were several times in the past that just before the elections a very deadly event changed everything.

A national mourning, a tragedy with many victims has a catalytic effect on voter psychology and it certainly tips the scales significantly at polling time.

The feeling, o pain and sorrow dominate with the majority not feeling the need to support any faction.

THE polarization it is she who ultimately influences the electorate.

Society primarily measures the responsibilities of each government, without leaving out of the “framework” those who came to power a short time ago.

THE management of each event also plays a very important role.

The awkward and fearful actions, the non-assignment of responsibilities and the oligarchy in the search for the causes of a tragedy do not go unnoticed by the electorate.

The fatal train accident in Tempe presents a peculiarity in addition to the fact that in time it almost touches the time when a popular verdict will be requested.

It is not a natural disaster as in the cases of the Athens earthquake in 1999 and the fires in Ilia and Mati in 2007 and 2018 respectively.

A routine route was the last stop for dozens of people.

With society looking like it “missed the train”.

In September 1999, six months before the April 2000 elections, the country mourned 143 victims of the Athens earthquake.

After the fall of Ricomex opened a great conversation about the industrial facilities that did not last and the way they were built.

At a time when bipartisanship was still very strong, PASOK did not lose power under the leadership of Kostas Simitis.

He increased his strength by almost two points, but felt the breath of the New Democracy of Kostas Karamanlis which gained 4.5% reaching 42.74%.

Saving or essentially preparing for the 2004 victory.

On August 17, 2007, Costas Karamanlis announced early elections and seven days later the extensive fires that hit Ilia began, resulting in the loss of 67 people in total.

The fires they caused tremors in the then government with the prime minister placing the country in a state of emergency in the face of the “asymmetrical threat”.

At the electoral level, the scene of 2000 was repeated.

New Democracy, like PASOK seven years ago, came out on top losing three and a half points, while the official opposition led by George Papandreou also recorded losses.

Kostas Karamanlis was re-elected prime minister with the citizens, however, showing that their trust in the two major parties that alternated in power since the post-colonial period and after has begun to falter.

The “blue faction” was on a downward trajectory which Costas Karamanlis caught up with in the short period of the pre-election period.

The course of things is known with PASOK winning power, two years later, in 2019.

The deadly fire in Mati in the summer of 2018 worked differently.

Alexis Tsipras had more than a year before the polls, according to polls, but he followed New Democracy for almost two years.

It is a fact that the way people lost their lives in Mati and everything that followed marked the SYRIZA government.

One hundred and three souls did not manage to be saved no matter how much they fought against the extreme weather conditions and encountered management inadequacies.

Since the summer of 2018, nothing has been the same when dealing with fires.

Something similar is true, now also with the issue of the railways in Greece, which entered the daily agenda in the most violent and macabre way.

THE SYRIZA lost the elections four years ago by eight points, handing the baton to New Democracy.

The government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis is called upon to manage a very difficult situation unprecedented in post-political annals.

The prime minister has not yet made any decision regarding the time of the elections, as the Maximus has given all its weight, beyond the investigation of the causes and the attribution of responsibilities, to the support of the families of the victims and the rehabilitation of the injured.

There are only estimates that on April 9, the tragedy in Tempi will still be too fresh for screens to be erected in schools.

After all, the investigations of the prosecutor’s authorities must be completed in parallel with the conclusion of the competent committee that was established.

The way the majority is handling the next day has provoked the reaction of the entire opposition and the political battle will culminate in the coming days.