Greek PM Tsipras Steps Down, Calls Early Elections

Local Editor

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras confirmed his resignation and early election plans for Greece in a live address. The move comes after Athens managed to pay a huge chunk of its €3.4 billion debt to the ECB.

"The political mandate of the January 25 elections has exhausted its limits and now the Greek people have to have their say," Tsipras said in a televised address Thursday night.

Tsipras said that he will now be looking for the Greek people to vote to continue the government program of his leftist Syriza party.

Local media have been speculating about the possible upcoming announcement since Thursday morning. Citing a source in the government, Reuters reported that Tsipras would propose holding the snap elections on September 20.

The resignation was handed in immediately after the address. However, no specific date for the snap poll was mentioned. However, Tsipras requested that President Prokopis Pavlopoulos hold the elections as soon as possible.

Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said that this time the election "will not be the same as those of 2012, because now there is agreement, and there is a framework for the recapitalization of banks."

Energy Minister Panos Skourletis and other politicians had been recently calling for the government to return to the ballot box.

"The political landscape must clear up. We need to know whether the government has or does not have a majority," he said.

On Friday, Eurozone finance ministers agreed to a third bailout program for the crisis-stricken country. Athens will receive a total of €86 billion over three years.

The same day, the Greek parliament approved a draft law enacting a third bailout plan. Forty-three members of Tsipras's Syriza party, including former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, voted against the bill or abstained. The party holds 149 seats in the parliament.

Skourletis said that Greek PM should move faster: "I would say elections first, then the party congress."

According to a Syriza lawmaker in the European Parliament, Dimitris Papadimoulis, the elections "whenever they are announced by the government, will provide a stable governing solution."

"My feeling is that Syriza will have an absolute majority," he declared.

Commenting on Tsipras' decision to step down, Euro-group President Jeroen Dijsselbloem stressed that it is "crucial that Greece maintains its commitments to the Eurozone."

"I recall the broad support in the Greek parliament for the new program and reform package and I hope the elections will lead to even more support in the new Greek parliament," Dijsselbloem added.

Accordingly, Syriza party campaigner, Anastasia Giamali, said that announcing the vote was "a very smart move" by Tsipras considering the current situation in Greece and its political system.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team