Greek PM set to seek early elections: report

Greek PM set to seek early elections: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to seek early elections, state television said on Thursday, Aug 20, hoping to quell a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal support to implement a tough bailout program, Reuters reported.

Ministers have openly debated for days about what the government should do after a large number of hard left Syriza lawmakers refused to back the 86 billion euro ($96 billion)bailout in parliament on Friday.

However, a government official said on Thursday that the option of calling a parliamentary confidence vote had been shelved and the idea of seeking snap polls as early as mid-September had become more likely.

Tsipras had been expected to call snap polls at some point in the autumn after his bruising seven months in office when Greece nearly crashed out of the euro zone and shut its banks for three weeks during a standoff with its euro zone and IMF creditors.

After campaigning against bailouts, the 41-year-old Prime Minister accepted last month Greece's third bailout, which demands tax increases and spending cuts, to avoid a banking collapse.

But the votes in parliament to pass the austerity measures laid bare a revolt by nearly a third of Syriza lawmakers, forcing Tsipras to rely on opposition support and robbing him of a guaranteed parliamentary majority.

Senior aides, such as Energy Minister Panos Skourletis, said the split with the party rebels who are threatening to break away had to be dealt with. "The political landscape must clear up. We need to know whether the government has or does not have a majority," he told ERT.

Syriza is expected to call a party congress in September to resolve differences with the rebels. But, expressing his personal opinion, Skourletis said Tsipras should move faster. "I would say elections first, then the party congress," he said.

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