Greek PM resignes, calls for polls

Greek PM resigns, calls for polls 20 Aug 2015 7:37 PM Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has submitted his resignation and that of his cabinet to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, and asked that elections be held on the soonest possible date. “The present parliament cannot offer a government of majority or a national unity government,” Tsipras told Pavlopoulos during a meeting on Thursday night. Government sources cited by the official news agency ANA said he had proposed elections on September 20. The resignation comes after a divide within the governing left-wing party over the terms of the country’s latest bailout. Energy and Environment Minister Panos Skourletis said there were two reasons for snap polls, which come just seven months after the government came to power. The first is that dozens of Tsipras’ governing left-wing Syriza party legislators voted against the government on the bailout deal. The government “has lost its majority [in parliament] – one can’t avoid this,” Skourletis said. The other reason was that Syriza is part of a government that needs to implement a programme that is different to that which it was elected for, the minister said.