Greece rebels announce new party ahead of snap polls

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned yesterday, hoping to strengthen his hold on power in snap elections after seven months in office in which he fought Greece’s creditors for a better bailout deal but had to cave in.

The initiatives were to thwart Tsipras’ efforts, whose resignation was a calculated move to consolidate his grip on power and press ahead with overhauls required by Greece’s third bailout, to hold elections as quickly as possible.

The first was that dozens of Tsipras’ governing left-wing Syriza party politicians voted against the government on the bailout deal.

The Syriza Labour Minister, George Katrougalos, said that the government needed to “reconfirm its mandate” to implement the third Greek bailout and that the party is “crippled by a number of dissident Mps”.

Mr. Tsipras has submitted his resignation to Greece’s president, who will appoint an interim prime minister to oversee a caretaker government until the election.

The election will bring unwelcome levels of political uncertainty, and there has already been a detrimental impact on the Greek Stock Exchange.

A Metron Analysis poll on July 24 put support for Syriza at 33.6 per cent, making it by far the most popular party, but not enough to govern without a coalition partner.

The third largest party is now the new movement formed by the 25 lawmakers who split from Syriza Friday. Tsipras is widely expected to win the vote, although if he does not gain an outright majority he could have to seek a new coalition.

The conservative New Democracy party now has the mandate, which would pass to the next group if it was unsuccessful in its effort. This effectively lost him his parliamentary majority. He noted that the bailout deal was signed with Greece, and not just the current government, meaning it should be implemented by whoever emerges as victorious from the election.

As Greece braces itself for a political shuffle and more economic struggles under its ongoing debt burden, Greeks are likely to continue to feel the consequences.

“I wish to be fully frank with you”.

“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. “We are obliged to observe this agreement, but at the same time we will do our utmost to minimize its negative consequences”.

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.