Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Resign, Says Official

In an announcement on national Greek television, seven months after taking office on the promise of rolling back austerity and staunchly opposed to additional bailouts from Europe, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has resigned.

Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has announced he is resigning and has called an early election, worldwide media report.

Numerous sources earlier speculated that the snap elections may be held in September (13 or 20), other spoke of October, after all the scheduled repayments to worldwide lenders are through.

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.

Energy Minister Panos Skourletis, a close Tsipras adviser, said he thinks the government must move quickly to resolve the rift within Syriza over the third bailout.

This first tranche is enough to cover Greece’s funding needs for two months although some observers worry the decision to call the snap poll will slow down the pace of economic reform.

The Prime Minister and his coalition government made a major U-turn in policy by accepting stringent budget austerity conditions that creditors had demanded in exchange for the bailout program.

Though the emergency measures were approved by the Greek parliament, the debate laid bare the ire many Syriza members have towards Tsipras for what they see as caving in to creditors. The proposed cuts were passed thanks to support from opposition parties.

He will visit President Prokopis Pavlopoulos later in the evening to submit his resignation.

The rumoured timing of the election is surprising, with many believing that the vote would come later in the year.

“For the stock markets it is a factor of uncertainty”.

The government had to close the banks at the end of June for three weeks as panicking savers pulled out billions, and imposed capital controls strictly limiting withdrawals from the banking system. Companies have faced problems paying suppliers overseas, with all worldwide payments requiring a laborious process of approval by a special finance ministry committee.

Tsipras – who remains popular in Greece and would be widely expected to return to power if elections were held now – was huddling with senior advisers on Thursday afternoon to decide his next move, a government official said.