ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS/REUTERS Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (L) meets with Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulios in Athens.
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In a speech broadcast on Greek state television, Tsipras said that the time had come for Greeks to choose who should lead the country through the hard path of debt reduction negotiations. Tsipras announced his gove…
Opinion polls suggest that Tsipras is in good shape to be returned as prime minister, although he is likely to again be forced to form a coalition government.
He acknowledged Thursday the bailout deal was not what his government had wanted.
(Giannis Kotsiaris/ InTime News via AP).
The opposition has little chance of uniting and forming a government so quickly, meaning that after more than five years of a worsening financial crisis, Greece is headed for its fifth national election in six years.
Rebels from Greece’s governing left-wing Syriza are to break away and form a new party, according to the BBC.
The election date is yet to be set, but Government officials said the plan was to hold it on September 20.
Under Greece’s constitution, the three biggest parties in parliament are given a three-day mandate to form a government after Mr Tsipras’ resignation.
Moody’s credit rating agency warned in a statement that the snap elections “could elevate programme implementation concerns” and potentially put further instalments of the bailout package at risk.
Berlin insisted it expects Athens to implement the reforms agreed under the bailout deal, saying Tsipras’s resignation has not changed anything.
Outgoing Deputy Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis said only an election could stabilise Greece after Mr Tsipras’s Syriza party split. “There is a very broad majority in the Greek parliament at the moment that supports the (bailout) package and the expectation is that that could even get stronger”, he told reporters.
Annika Breidthardt, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said Brussels expected the terms of the bail-out to be respected, regardless of the election outcome. Conservative leader Vangelis Meimarakis’ New Democracy party has just 76 members in the 300-seat Parliament, and is unlikely to find enough partners among an opposition that ranges from the KKE communists to the ultra-right Golden Dawn party.
If they fail, the president must organise early elections.
But the deal came with strict terms for mroe belt-tightening.
His U-turn in accepting the demands by the country’s creditors led to outrage among hardliners in his Syriza party, with dozens voting against him during the bailout’s ratification in parliament last week.
It was not immediately clear how much support the new Popular Unity group could steal from Tsipras, who is hoping the snap polls will return him to power in a new position of strength.
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Analysts at Societe Generale said the latest development could prevent the passing of bailout-related legislation – including pension reform and spending measures – until after the elections. Both had opposed a new bailout deal, with Ms Konstantopulou highly critical of her former ally Mr Tsipras.
