Athens: Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Thursday announced he is resigning and has called an early election.
Tsipras made the announcement in a televised state address.
He said with the first tranche of the bailout arriving, he now had the moral duty to ask the Greek people to deliver their judgment.
Tsipras, according to BBC, said he would seek the vote of the Greek people to continue his government’s programme.
Tsipras faced a rebellion within his ruling hard-left Syriza party over a new bailout deal which has been agreed with international creditors.
Greece received the first $14.5 billion tranche on Thursday, allowing it to repay a debt to the European Central Bank and avoid a messy default. But the austerity measures needed for the deal angered many in his party.
Tsipras said Greeks would have to decide whether he had represented them courageously with the creditors.
He will visit President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to submit his resignation.
Greece will then be run by a caretaker government.
–IANS