Greek PM Alexis Tsipras announces resignation, calls for snap election

“We need to know whether the government has or does not have a majority”, Energy Minister Panos Skourletis told ERT, according to local media reports.

He is standing down after only seven months in office, in the face of fierce criticism from the “Left Platform” within his ruling Syriza party after accepting fresh austerity measures for a new bailout deal with the worldwide creditors to avoid crashing out of the euro currency.

“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“, Martin Selmayr said in a tweet.

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. His announcement came on the same day Greece received its first installment of a new bailout and paid a $3.2 billion bill.

Because Mr Tsipras’ government has been in power for less than 12 months, opposition parties would be given three days to try and form a government – but if they fail, a general election will be called by the president. “In a while I will visit the president and hand in my resignation and that of the government”.

Tsipras’s resignation not only paves the way for a new election but also sets the stage for the nation’s first-ever female prime minister.

Early on Thursday, as rumors began to circulate that Mr. Tsipras would call for early elections, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, speaking in Parliament, said early elections would not lead to political instability and called on Greeks to return their savings to banks. His coalition government has the support of less 120 members of the 300-seat parliament and has to rely on opoposition MPs to pass legislation.

You’ll notice he’s trying to get the election over with as quickly as possible-perhaps because he fears the political fallout that will come from implementing the austerity measures demanded by the worldwide community in exchange for the new financial bailout. There are weekly limits on cash withdrawals and Greeks can only transfer up to 500 euros overseas per month.

In a clear dig at rebels within the SYRIZA party, Tsipras spoke of “those who transformed the majority that the people gave us into a parliamentary minority”.