Tsipras triggers second election

Greece has already had one election and a referendum this year. Now it’s going back to the polls again with Alexis Tsipras announcing his resignation and snap elections.

Tsipras says he has a moral duty to go to the polls after securing Greece’s third bailout, arguing that ‘we did not achieve the agreement we expected before the January elections’ and that he wants voters’ approval before continuing with the programme. But this is also his attempt to secure authority by calling an election at an advantageous time for him, given he was facing a no confidence vote. He had lost the backing of many of his own MPs after his bizarre decision to call a referendum which then made little difference to the way he conducted negotiations over Greece’s bailout.

Aside from Tsipras’ own future, this calls into question the security of the bailout deal, with analysts warning that Grexit is still a serious threat.