Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is likely to call snap elections in June, a source in his SYRIZA party said on Sunday on condition of anonymity.

 

 SYRIZA, in power since 2015, suffered a heavy defeat on Sunday in elections for new delegates to the European Parliament, trailing behind the main opposition New Democracy party by about nine points.

 

 Tsipras was due to issue a statement on Sunday evening. [Reuters] </s> ATHENS, May 26 (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he would call snap elections following the defeat of his Syriza party in European Parliament elections.

Results showed his party trailing by up to nine points behind the opposition New Democracy party. Under normal circumstances, Tsipras's mandate ends in October.

In a speech Tsipras said he would meet with the Greek President to discuss calling elections immediately after the conclusion of a second round of local Greek elections scheduled for next week. </s> Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has called for an early national election following the defeat of his party at the European Parliament elections.

 

 Tsipras said from the SYRIZA party offices that “the result does not rise to our expectations ... I will not ignore it or quit.”

 

 The government's term expires in October and before Sunday night's announcement, government officials insisted that elections would be held at the end of the term.

 

 Tsipras said he will visit the Greek president to request the early dissolution of parliament after the second round of local and regional elections on June 2.

 

 This puts the election date at June 30 at the earliest. [AP] </s> ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called snap national elections after suffering a heavy defeat by the opposition conservatives in European Parliament elections on Sunday.

A woman exits the polling booth before casting her vote for the European and local elections at a polling station in Athens, Greece, May 26, 2019. REUTERS/Constantina Peppa

With an unexpectedly severe pounding at the ballot box for his leftist Syriza party, Tsipras decided not to push through to a full term which expires in October.

“I will request immediate declaration of national elections from the President of the Republic,” Tsipras said in a speech. A party source said the earliest a vote could take place would be June 30, to allow for preparations.

Results for the European Parliament vote showed Syriza trailing the opposition New Democracy party by about nine points.

Syriza stormed the Greek political scene on an anti-austerity platform six years ago, then suffered a backlash after having to impose cut-backs as part of a third bailout in 2015. More damagingly, there was a deeply unpopular agreement that resolved a long-running name dispute with North Macedonia.

New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis demanded Tsipras resign, saying he had lost the popular mandate.

“The Prime Minister must assume his responsibilities. For the good of the country he must resign and the country should hold national elections, the soonest possible,” Mitsotakis said.

Once a leftist firebrand, Tsipras, 44, mellowed after sweeping to power and telling the country’s creditors to back off in 2015.

But he was forced into a painful new bailout months later, when faced with a choice of that or being turfed out of the euro zone and into the financial wilderness. The capitulation went down badly with many voters.

Greece emerged from close financial supervision by its lenders in August 2018. The government this month introduced tax cuts and pension payouts, going some way toward unwinding some of the austerity measures.

The handouts may have averted a steeper defeat in the European election, political analyst Thanos Veremis said.

Tsipras’ decision to broker a deal ending a name dispute with North Macedonia earned kudos from his European partners, but proved deeply unpopular with many Greeks.

His coalition partner, Panos Kammenos, pulled out of the government in January, triggering a confidence vote in parliament that Tsipras nonetheless won comfortably.

For most, use of the Macedonia name is an appropriation of Greek heritage by the country’s small neighbor. Regardless, Tsipras signed the name-change deal in June, on the banks of the Prespes Lake bordering Albania, Greece and North Macedonia.

“Syriza committed suicide in Prespes,” Kammenos, his former coalition partner, tweeted on Sunday evening. </s> ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for the resignation of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Sunday after a European Parliament election result which Mitsotakis’s party won.

“It is obvious that the Greek people have withdrawn their confidence in this government .. The Prime Minister must assume his responsibilities. He must resign and the country should hold national elections the soonest possible.”

Early election results showed Mitsotakis’s New Democracy party leading Tsipras’s Syriza party by up to nine points. At present, elections are scheduled to be held in October. </s> Greek Prime Minister and Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras has reportedly said that after the second round of the elections for the local administration on Sunday 2, he will meet with President Prokopios Pavlopoulos and ask for the dissolution of parliament and national elections, probably on June 30, according to Tornos News.

Syriza, in power since 2015, suffered a heavy defeat on Sunday in the European Parliamentary elections, falling behind the main opposition New Democracy party by about nine points. </s> Athens: Greece is headed to a snap elections after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras suffered a crushing defeat in European Parliament elections.

The vote could come as early as June 30, after the 44-year-old leftist leader admitted the outcome left him little choice. His main opposition, New Democracy, scored about 10 percentage points more than the premier's Syriza party.

Tsipras has shown himself to be the ultimate political survivor but he will have a hard time staying in the game after such a stinging electoral defeat.

The firebrand leader saw himself catapulted into power in 2015 as he led Europe's most indebted state to a clash with its creditors only to back down after flirting with the country's expulsion from the euro area. </s> ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday urged his Syriza party to regroup and heed the message of voters ahead of snap national elections he called after a resounding defeat from opposition conservatives in European Parliament elections.

In a speech designed to rally Syriza party faithful, Tsipras said the result of Sunday’s vote, which saw opposition New Democracy ahead by about ten points, fell below his expectations.

“The crucial thing in life is not if you will fall, but if you will get up,” Tsipras said.

“I want to ask you all, today, to get up, and regroup, and fight. We very well know we can do it. Because our main strength is that we are defending what is just, our values, the values of the democratic faction and of the left.”

Tsipras has said he plans early elections after Sunday’s defeat. It is widely speculated they could take place as early as June 30. </s> Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an early national election following the defeat of his party in the European Parliament polls.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an early national election following the defeat of his party in the European Parliament polls.

Mr Tsipras said from the Syriza party offices that “the result does not rise to our expectations … I will not ignore it or quit”.

Mr Tsipras credited his government for pulling the country out of the austerity imposed by Greece’s creditors and said that voting for Sunday’s winner, the conservative New Democracy, would be turning back to “the darkness of austerity, the darkness off crisis, the oligarchs, the International Monetary Fund”.

The government’s term expires in October and before Sunday night’s announcement, government officials insisted that elections would be held at the end of the term.

But a long and contentious meeting of government ministers and party officials ended with the announcement of the early election.

Mr Tsipras said he will visit the Greek president to request the early dissolution of parliament after the second round of local and regional elections on June 2.

This puts the election date at June 30 at the earliest.

In the run-up to the election, Mr Tsipras brought to Parliament a series of measures that amounted to handouts and defied the conservatives to vote against them.

They did not, but accused Mr Tsipras of a desperate gambit for votes.

With just over a third of voting precincts reporting, New Democracy is leading with 33.62% to Syriza’s 23.86%.

The socialists of the Movement for Change follow with 7.16%, ahead of the Communist Party (5.75, the far-right Golden Dawn (4.86%), the hard-line nationalist Greek Solution (4.04%) and Diem25, the pan-European movement of Syriza’s first finance minister Yanis Varoufakis (3.15%).

If the results hold, New Democracy will win seven European Parliament seats; Syriza will get six; the socialists, the communists and Golden Dawn two each; and Greek Solution and Diem25 one each.

New Democracy also stands to make important gains in the second round of the local and regional elections next Sunday.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose term expires in October, calls for snap elections following his leftist Syriza party's heavy defeat by the opposition conservatives in the European Parliament elections.