Now that the country has secured its funding, Mr Tsipras said that he felt obliged to let the Greek people evaluate his work.
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Tsipras has suffered a “rebellion” among lawmakers in his Syriza party over the past seven months, Reuters reported on Thursday, which forced him to rely on the opposition to approve Greece’s bailout deal.
A caretaker government would take over until elections are held, led by Greece’sSupreme Court President Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou, who would be the first woman to serve as prime minister in Greece’s history.
According to CNBC, citing Dow Jones, Tsipras will hand in his resignation later on Thrusday.
The other group has advised Tsipras not to consider elections before October 11 so the government has a chance to implement its new bailout agreement with lenders and rebuild trust with them.
Some 43 of Syriza’s 149 MPs had either opposed the bailout or abstained in last Friday’s Greek parliamentary vote that approved the deal.
Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity pending an announcement by the prime minister, on Thursday said the snap polls would be held on September 20.
A decision on the polls is expected next week, but could come earlier with Tsipras meeting his cabinet today.
The government on Thursday cleared 3.4 billion euros owed to the European Central Bank, the ECB confirmed, marking an urgently needed truce in a row that saw Greek banks shuttered, the economy battered and almost saw Greece thrown out of the eurozone.
And so with fresh elections, Tsipras cane work towards flushing out the dissent in his party and firming up Syriza’s power in parliament.
Tsipras, leader of leftist SYRIZA party, took office as prime minister on 26 January. The government “has lost its majority (in parliament) – one can’t avoid this”, Skourletis said. Forty-four members of the governing coalition voted against the measures.
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 favors merely delaying interest and principal repayments, Tsipras could still present any debt relief moves as an achievement to the electorate.
There are weekly limits on cash withdrawals and Greeks can only transfer up to €500 overseas per month.
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The latest Greek political drama came as the finance ministry announced that the European Stability Mechanism, an EU rescue fund, had allocated €13 billion in funds from the new bailout package.
