Parties Fail to See Eye to Eye, Greek Polls Next Month

Hellenic Parliament. Photo © Maria Theofanopoulou

Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos is expected on Friday, to officially announce elections to be held next month as parties failed to form a coalition government, media report.

In the past week, following Alexis Tsipras’ resignation as prime minister, Greek political parties, at loggerheads over Greece’s latest bailout deal, failed to see eye to eye and create a coalition government which would put new elections on hold.

Mr Pavlopoulos is also expected to appoint a caretaker prime minister on Friday. Slated for the post is Supreme Court justice Vassiliki Thanou.

According to a high ranking official who spoke to Reuters, polls are likely to be held on September 20.

Mr Tsipras, who has been in power since January, stepped down from his post last week, following intra-party wrangling over his handling of the bailout negotiations.

The leftist Syriza party has its sights set on clenching a majority vote, despite having had to team up with opposition parties to pass the 86 billion euro bailout program in Greek parliament.

In the meantime, 53 members from Syriza’s Central Committee resigned earlier today stating in a letter that they “refuse to support a new or past bailout program, which will be a final blow to the already torn Greek people”.