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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Resign

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has announced his resignation and called for early elections in the crisis-hit country.

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Tsipras was huddling with senior advisers on Thursday afternoon to decide his next move, a government official said.

Mr Tsipras effectively lost his parliamentary majority after hardliners within his party expressed their opposition to a third worldwide bailout – meaning he had to rely on the opposition for the bill to pass last week.

The new three-year bailout is worth 86 billion euros ($95.6 billion), and the disbursement of funds is dependent on the Greek government implementing a series of reforms, including steep tax hikes and spending cuts.

The all-clear from the finance ministers in the 19-country eurozone came after the new bailout was approved by European parliaments, including the Bundestag of Germany, Greece’s effective paymaster.

Tsipras has been in office as the head of a coalition government made up largely of Syriza with a deal with the rightwing, anti-austerity party Independent Greeks (Anel).

Rutte says that Parliament did not have to formally give its approval, but it would have been politically hard for him to sign off on the European loans to Athens if a majority of lawmakers had rejected the plan.

As the country lurched close to a departure from the euro this year, lenders suffered capital flight and deteriorating collateral quality, pushing them to tap the Bank of Greece for emergency funding.

Greece could not have afforded the debt repayment, which was confirmed by the debt management agency, without the rescue funds from 18 other European nations that share the euro currency.

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The political uncertainty took its toll on the market, with the Athens Stock Exchange down 2.8 percent in early afternoon trading.

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