Mr. Tsipras’s governing left-wing Syriza party is deeply split over the premier’s decision to reach a new bailout deal with Greece’s eurozone creditors that obliges Greece to enact further tough austerity measures.
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Prime Minister and Syriza Leader, Alexis Tsipras, stood down on Thursday, paving the way for new elections.
It will be lead by former energy minster Panagiotis Lafazani.
“Once he submits his resignation the prime minister would be replaced by the president of Greece’s supreme court, Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou – a vocal bailout opponent – who would oversee the elections as the head of a transitional government”, writes the UK Guardian.
Tsipras is betting he will win the new vote and form a government that, shorn of the rebels, can implement the reforms demanded by the bailout over the next three years.
“The step by Prime Minister Tsipras isn’t surprising” considering he has lost his majority in parliament, said Steffen Seibert, spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Under Greece’s constitutional rules, the president offered the conservative opposition, the New Democracy party, the chance to form a government, but that too seems improbable given that it has only 76 MPs – hence the likelihood of a September poll. “The bailout program is a program that was agreed with the Hellenic republic… and it will be valid through election dates”.
“While an early election could be helpful in terms of removing hardliners from a Tsipras-led Syriza and, possibly, forcing the party to adopt a more centrist stance, the most likely outcome will be another fragmented parliament in which no party controls an absolute majority”, said Wolfgango Piccoli, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence.
The anti-bailout party are calling themselves the Popular Unity party, a far leftist group that will take voters away from Tsipras, according to Reuters. “We will either finish off the bailouts, or the bailouts will finish off Greece and the Greek people“, said Lafazanis.
The other reason was that Syriza is part of a government that needs to implement a program that is different to that which it was elected for.
The political uncertainty is taking its toll on Greece’s stock market, with the Athens Stock Exchange down 1.6 percent shortly after opening Friday, after closing 3.5 percent down Thursday on election speculation.
The European Union’s executive arm is overseeing Greece’s third mammoth bailout along with the European Central Bank and global Monetary Fund, and is largely seen as the most open to the anti-austerity arguments put forward in Athens.
“Now that this hard cycle has ended…”
He said he felt a “deep moral” obligation to lay his actions before the judgment of the Greek people.
“I want to be honest with you”.
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“This agreement provides perspective for the Greek economy and a basis for sustainable growth”, said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the so-called Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, vowing officials would monitor the process closely. “But… (the agreement) was the best anyone could have achieved”.
