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The Guardian reports
Seven months after he was elected on a promise to overturn austerity, the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has announced he is stepping down to pave the way for snap elections next month.
As the debt-crippled country received the first tranche of a punishing new €86bn (£61bn) bailout, Tsipras said on Thursday he felt "a moral obligation to place this deal in front of the people, to allow them to judge ... both what I have achieved, and my mistakes".
The 41-year-old Greek leader is still popular with voters for having at least tried to stand up to the country's creditors and his leftwing Syriza party is likely to be returned to power in the imminent general election, which government officials told Greek media was most likely to take place on 20 September.
Time magazine notes
It's one of the most basic rules of electoral politics: Keep your campaign promises or you will lose the support of your voters--but Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has deftly managed to skirt that rule. On Thursday, when he announced that he will resign and call snap elections for September 20, Tsipras wagered that voters would stay behind him regardless of the fact that he has failed to keep most of his core campaign pledges. And he is probably right.
At the end of July--after he had abandoned hopes of shielding the Greek welfare state from further cuts and austerity measures--Tsipras' approval rating was still at a comfortable 60% in all the major polls. Even now he is comfortably ahead of any other political leader in the country, and his move on Thursday to call elections is intended to lock in that support.
The prime minister will be replaced for the duration of the short campaign by the president of Greece's supreme court, Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou--a vocal bailout opponent--as head of a caretaker government.
In related news, in the first move to sell off Greece's public infrastructure, as required by the terms of the third bailout, New Media outlet enikos indicates that German corporation Fraport doesn't think it has squeezed the Greek government quite hard enough yet and wants an even better deal than €1.2B to take over Greece's airports.
While opposed to asset sales when elected in January, Tsipras reversed his pre-election promise in order to seal a bailout deal in July. The shift has split the ruling Syriza party with the prospect of new elections as early as September. Tsipras is planning a confidence vote after 44 of his lawmakers voted against him when the bailout deal was approved last week.
...and this was after a public referendum July 5 where 61 percent of the Greek electorate said NO AUSTERITY.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Saturday August 22 2015, @11:41PM
Everyone knows that in parliamentary government systems, unscheduled elections can happen at just about any time, due to carefully planned "snap" elections, votes of no confidence, etc.
Carefully planned, and often "early" ones are usually called by the party in power to renew their mandate while they feel they have the upper hand (for the moment).
It's happening in Canada [680news.com] right now. It might be more interesting [nationaljournal.com] than the "too early to matter" US campaigns.
It happens in a lot of parliamentary systems when people don't expect it, and resignations (even while also running as a candidate) is a common ploy. Its not a new phenomena.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2015, @02:09AM
Yeah, I have a grasp of the broad strokes.
It is, however, a pretty good bet to think that a USAian doesn't know the fine points of how stuff works anywhere on the other side of the pond.
In bid to ram through austerity package, Tsipras calls snap elections in Greece [wsws.org]
The guy who got control of Syriza clearly isn't the committed anti-austerity Leftist he claimed to be.
He simply wants to retain power and is willing to surrender any principles to do that.
(Is anyone else thinking "Barrabas"?)
"Left Platform" splits from Syriza [wsws.org]
.
...not that any of this is going to matter after The Crash of 2016. [google.com]
The meltdown on equity markets is being driven by signs that the world economy is sliding into a new recession or outright depression. [wsws.org]
-- gewg_
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 23 2015, @03:45AM
Hint: since WW2, no bear markets have been allowed during Presidential election years [pepperdine.edu].
The market might drop a bit in 2015, but that's the dip to buy. Sell after the election in 2016.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday August 24 2015, @03:04AM
Then what in the hell was that we went through right as President Obama was elected in 2008?
It looks like we are still trying to digest all the shenanigans the bankers pulled on us.
And it looks like as 2016 is approaching, they are getting ready to do it again.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]