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Alexis Tsipras has resigned and a snap election has been called in Greece

Alexis Tsipras has announced the vote will take place in September.

GREEK PRIME MINISTER Alexis Tsipras has confirmed he will be tendering his resignation and the country will hold a snap election next month.

He made the announcement on national television this evening, stating that he has exhausted the mandate given to him in January when he took up office.

However, he also said that he was proud of his government and the long negotiations they put in over the past eight months.

Untitled

“Now that this difficult cycle has come to an end, I wish to submit to your judgement all that we have done,” Tsipras said, before meeting President Prokopis Pavlopoulous to formally hand in his resignation.

The move leaves Greece in the hands of a caretaker government until the vote.

Tsipras’s announcement came on the same day the debt-crippled country received its first €13 billion in bailout cash today.

That effectively started the mammoth rescue package agreed last month, and worth around €86 billion over the next three years.

Making his statement, Tsipras conceded that the €86 billion deal reached was not the one they wanted – but the best they could get. He also said that Greece is now obliged to honour it.

Tsipras’ acceptance of the new bailout deal angered members of his leftist Syriza party, many of whom voted against him in parliament last week.

The 41 year old will hope that today’s decision will counter that internal rebellion as an expected win would provide him with a new mandate.

The Greek PM remains popular in the country despite presiding over six months of financial and political chaos. Today, he presented himself as the middle ground for voters.

His resignation and subsequent election means he will no longer have to face a confidence motion which had been looming.

Going to the ballot boxes again

The vote will be held on 20 September. It will be the second election in Greece in eight months. The ballot will be overseen by the current president of the supreme court Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou.

The European Commission, one of the creditor institutions overseeing the new rescue package, welcomed the news saying it would politically bolster the just launched bailout, Greece’s third in five years.

“Swift elections in Greece can be a way to broaden support for ESM stability support programme just signed by Prime Minister Tsipras on behalf of Greece,” tweeted Martin Selmayr, chief of staff to commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, referring to the EU bailout fund.

With reporting from AFP

Originally published: 18.50

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231 Comments
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    Mute Daffers
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 12:55 PM

    Wow. To be the 7th least failed state in the world is mindblowing… simply for the thought that most are in a worse position than us!

    58
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    Mute Alex simon
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:35 PM

    We are better than canada! And the usa not bad

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    Mute Treasa Lynch
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:21 PM

    Am I reading that right? Only three other EU members are less failed states than Ireland is?

    God that must really irritate the crew who consider us a complete banana republic.

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    Mute Kevin O Sullivan
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:03 PM

    i thought everything in the nordic countries was top banna. seeings they are always held up as the ones to be like

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    Mute Claire O'Dwyer
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:09 PM

    That article doesn’t make a whole pile of sense..

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    Mute fizi_water
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 2:57 PM

    This ranking is not about quality of life, etc. like some comments suggest you read that. It’s about peace and military risks in particular countries.

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 6:11 PM

    I suppose it’s “our” fault that seven of the ten worst countries are in Africa.

    Haiti was a cesspit ever before the tragedy there, sadly, and now they’ve turned to raping one another.

    Iraq and Afghanistan are a whole other story!

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    Mute fitszpatrick
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    Jun 24th 2011, 12:10 AM

    Hail the baldy Nazis dem dam nigras don’t have a clue

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Jun 24th 2011, 1:23 AM

    You’re some gowl.

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    Mute David Higgins
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 6:05 PM

    I hope we can move up near Switzerland at some stage. Tighter borders, lower-taxes, and they have their own currency!!!

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    Mute Dave Finn
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 11:10 PM

    Lower taxes? Really? Any mid Europe states i’ve lived in were thieves when it came to tax! (admittedly i’ve not lived in Switzerland, but it is one of my favourite places!)

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    Mute Shaafici Cali
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:40 PM

    really this is propaganda somalia is not leading top list there is bit exageration we aware of that somalia is devastated country and failure state indicating humanitarian crises and human rights abuses ,killing ,abducting, hijacking raping but there is still hope to survive this condition we are not hopeless our people still struggling to control there live style and to restore the country peace and stability so that we are not top list becouse this means no hope

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    Mute fizi_water
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 3:03 PM

    Sorry, but what is actually your point, I struggle to understand? Thanks.

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    Mute wayupnorth
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 4:11 PM

    I think the point was that “there is hope”.

    And yes, if other countries stopped interfering, there probably would be. For example:
    “The United States has quietly poured weapons and military advisers into Ethiopia, whose recent invasion of Somalia opened a new front in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism …” etc etc. 1/8/2007

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