News / EU

Greece's PM warns of early polls over 'rebel' MPs

Thursday, 30 July 2015 5:06 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 30 July 2015 5:07 AM ]

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses a session at the parliament on July 23, 2015. (AFP photo)

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has warned the ruling party that he may be forced to call early elections if its lawmakers continue to oppose talks for a new bailout deal with international creditors.

The Greek premier made the remarks during an interview with his ruling Syriza Party’s Sto Kokkino radio station on Wednesday.

"I would be the last person to want elections, if I had the secured parliamentary majority to make it through to the end of the four-year term," Tsipras said.
"But if I don't have a parliamentary majority, we will be forced to go to elections," he added.

The warning by the Greek premier comes as three dozen of his 149 lawmakers have refused to support reforms he agreed to implement at a European summit on July 13, forcing Tsipras to rely on opposition MPs to pass the legislation.

Tsipras added that he seeks to hold an emergency party congress by September in order to determine the anti-austerity leftist party's future.

The Greek prime minister's six-month-old government, which came into power with anti-austerity vows, is in talks over an 86-billion euro (USD 93.3 billion) bailout in exchange for reforms, the country’s third loan from lenders since 2010.

Earlier this week, Greece started a new round of talks on pension and labor market reforms over its third bailout with the so-called troika of international lenders -- the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission.

Later this week, high-level negotiations are expected to be held between Greek ministers and European Union (EU) and IMF officials.

The deal is expected to be reached by August 20.

Greece recently received a short-term loan of 7.16 billion euros (USD 7.77 billion) from the EU in return for reforms, which allowed the cash-strapped country to repay about two billion euros (USD 2.2 billion) of its debt to the IMF.

Athens has received two bailout packages worth a total of 240 billion euros (USD 272 billion) over the past five years.

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