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| Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Call New Elections, Officials Say | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| ATHENS — Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Greece will call for national elections on Sept. 20 in a bid to consolidate his power and press ahead with the bailout plan he agreed to this summer with European creditors, government officials said Thursday. | |
| Mr. Tsipras is expected to begin the process by submitting his resignation on Thursday, clearing the way for a vote next month on whether he and his leftist Syriza party should be returned to power with a new mandate. | |
| “We know for sure that we will have elections on the 20th,” said one government minister, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity. “He is going to resign today.” | |
| Mr. Tsipras has been weighing new elections for weeks amid a deep split within his party over his embrace of the bailout plan. | |
| Mr. Tsipras was elected in January on an anti-austerity platform but, after several tumultuous months, he reversed course and agreed to a new bailout program with the country’s European creditors. The deal infuriated Syriza’s far-left factions, and it was passed through Parliament with the help of opposition parties. Defections from Mr. Tsipras’s coalition had raised the possibility that he would not have the necessary support to prevail in a potential parliamentary test of confidence in his leadership, a possibility he short-circuited by calling for new elections. | |
| Some analysts had thought Mr. Tsipras might not call snap elections until October, after the country faces the first review of its progress in meeting the terms of the bailout, but instead he moved to act more quickly. | |
| The move to quick elections could slow or complicate progress in carrying out the initial phases of the changes demanded by the bailout package. But Mr. Tsipras has remained highly popular in Greece despite his reversal on the bailout plan, with polls showing no other leader in a position to challenge him at this stage. | |
| In comments in Parliament on Thursday, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said early elections would not lead to political instability and called on Greeks to return their savings to banks. | |
| “Now there is an agreement, there is a course ahead,” he said, referring to the latest bailout, which formally took effect on Thursday following approval on Wednesday by the German Parliament and European officials in Brussels. | |
| Energy Minister Panos Skourletis said on state TV earlier in the day that elections were needed to deal with the split in Syriza. “The political landscape must be cleared up. We need to know whether the government has or doesn’t have a majority.” |