Greek media said 25 hardline MPs together have named the new party Leiki Anotita (Popular Unity) under the leadership of former Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who was against the bailout deal.
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Meanwhile, President Prokopis Pavlopoulos met Evangelos Meimarakis, head of the opposition conservative New Democracy party to ask them to try to form a new government, the Associated Press reported.
Under the Greek constitution, following the Prime Minister’s resignation, the three biggest parties are each given a mandate by the president to form a government.
I call for a strong mandate for a stable government, Tsipras declared, noting that the approved bailout program includes measures to reduce the burden of the recession that will be brought on by the anticipated austerity plan.
Greece will go to the polls next month after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned on Thursday evening.
The European creditors are expected to carry out their first review of the implementation of reforms in October.
The political shake up in Greece hasn’t gone unnoticed by the European countries who just this week agreed to a new bailout for the country.
Here is a look at what comes next for Greece and what the elections mean for the bailout, the 86 billion euro ($95 billion) package of loans that is keeping the country solvent and part of Europe’s joint currency, the euro.
“Of course the German government expects, like all other European partners of Greece, the implementation of the reforms listed in the program, ” he added.
In The Hague, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, urged Greece to hold the elections “swiftly, to lose as little time as possible”.
The opposition leader made it clear that his party will attempt everything to “ensure elections are the last option, not the first as Tsipras wants”, daily Kathimerini informs.
“I feel the deep ethical and political responsibility to put to your judgment all I have done, successes and failures”.
Tsipras’ reversal in accepting such terms for the bailout caused outrage among Syriza hardliners.
“I wish to be fully frank with you”.
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“The market started discounting the snap elections scenario on Thursday, we are seeing relatively lower pressure today on thin volume”, said analyst Vasilis Andreou at Athens-based Berta Securities. “But… (the agreement) was the best anyone could have achieved”.
