Although Tsipras is widely tipped to win the election, if he fails to secure an outright majority he would have to seek a complex coalition deal that could hamper his ability to govern in the long term.
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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will resign later today, August 20, 2015.
But while the term “flip-flopper” may have cost John Kerry the US presidency in 2004, for Mr. Tsipras, the label has not yet been pinned to his lapel.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the polling station after voting for the Greek referendum, speaking to reporters in Kerkyras Kastalia street in Athens on June 5, 2015.
(Giannis Kotsiaris/ InTime News via AP).
Meimarakis took aim at Tsipras. The government has said its main priority was to secure the bailout funding and to repay the european central bank loan on Thursday, after which it would announce any further action.
“If the people had not been as decisive the creditors would have led us into disaster”, he said.
However, before a polling date can be set, other parties will be given three days to try and form a new administration without Syriza.
EC President Juncker’s chief of staff, Martin Selmayr tweeted this evening: “Swift elections in Greece can be a way to broaden support for ESM stability support programme just signed by PM Tsipras on behalf of Greece“.
“I will shortly meet with the president of the republic and present my resignation and that of my government”, Tsipras said in a live televised address to the nation.
Months of uncertainty has taken its toll on the economy with spending cuts and delays in public payments driving the current 2% budget surplus – while tax revenues have fallen by over 15%. “To fight the hard demands of the creditors”.
An opinion poll on 24 July found Syriza was the most popular party, with support at 33.6 per cent, but even so this would mean governing with a coalition partner.
However, initial reaction from European authorities appeared cautiously optimistic. Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, one of the harshest critics of Syriza throughout the bailout negotiations, urged conservatives yesterday who were threatening to vote against the package to change their minds “in the interest of Greece and the interest of Europe”, he said.
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.
It had delayed a decision until after it received the first installment from the bailout and made a debt repayment to the European Central Bank, both of which it did Thursday. “I feel the deep ethical and political responsibility to put to your judgment all I have done, successes and failures”, he said.
Mr Tsipras has insisted that although he disagrees with the bailout conditions, he had no choice but to accept and implement them. He is betting on a stronger mandate if polls are held before voters feel the impact of the new steep tax hikes and spending cuts.
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Tsipras acknowledged Thursday that the bailout deal was not what his government had wanted.
