ING Bank’s Paolo Pizzoli said Mr Tsipras was deliberately challenging opponents within Syriza, adding that should he fail to win an outright majority, any coalition would be likely to have a pro-bailout stance.
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Over two dozen hardliners have pulled out of Greece’s ruling leftist Syriza party in an attempt to form what will be the third largest group in the parliament ahead of the country’s snap elections.
Greece’s European creditors seemed to take the news, which was widely expected, in stride.
German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was on a trip to Brazil, said that Tsipras’s announcement of an election was part of the solution not the problem. “It sets the course for the next three years and nothing has changed on that”.
“If there were to be a delay when reviewing the program due to the snap elections, then this would mean that the next payment would also be delayed”, said finance ministry spokesman Juerg Weissgerber. He said he needed a strong mandate going into talks about further reforms to the economy.
On Friday, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos formally gave the conservative opposition a chance to form a new coalition government after Tsipras’s government resigned. It is the new movement formed by the 25 lawmakers who split from Syriza on Friday.
Laiki Enotita or Popular Unity is led by Panagiotis Lafazanis, Greece’s former Energy Minister.
“We respect Mr. Tsipras decision, but I can’t help feeling it’s a bit cynical timing to do it immediately after the first disbursement”, Kažimír said in a tweet.
Under the Greek constitution, Meimarakis has three days to determine if his party can create a viable government before a caretaker regime is put in place. Almost a third of SYRIZA legislators voted against the measures or abstained in the vote.
About one in four Syriza lawmakers refused to back the bailout’s ratification in parliament last week; it won approval only with backing from opposition parties.
Faced with a near collapse of the Greek financial system which threatened the country’s future in the euro, Tsipras was forced to accept troika demands for yet more austerity and economic reform, the very policies he had promised to scrap when he was elected in January. “Regardless of elections, reforms can now be implemented”.
However, it is clear that without a new government for several more weeks, the country will fall behind in the reforms it has to make for the bailout. Reports suggest the election – the fifth in six years – will be called for 20 September.
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Tsipras has long argued that Greece will never be able to repay all its debts and wants some to be written off. While the euro zone favours merely delaying interest and principal repayments, Tsipras could still present any debt relief moves as an achievement to the electorate. Voters will decide whether to support him and the new agreement.
