Tsipras
said not to have decided on early Greek elections, left rebels turn up
heat
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[August 19, 2015]
By George Georgiopoulos
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras has yet to make up his mind on calling early elections, a
government minister said on Wednesday, following a rift in the ruling
party over the country's new bailout deal.
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The comment came as former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis,
who leads hard left rebels in Tsipras' Syriza party, repeated his
opposition to the bailout and signaled he might refuse to support
Tsipras in any confidence vote.
Ministers have spoken openly about the possibility of a
parliamentary confidence vote leading to elections since Tsipras had
to rely on opposition lawmakers to win approval on Friday for the 86
billion euro bailout deal.
But Deputy Culture Minister Nikos Xydakis played down speculation
that Tsipras could move soon after Greece makes a 3.2 billion euro
debt repayment to the European Central Bank on Thursday, using funds
to be released under the bailout program.
Xydakis pinned the timing on the first review of progress under the
new bailout, which Greece's creditors will conduct in October.
"There are two views in order to have a strengthened government -
elections either before or after the first bailout review. It is a
decision the prime minister will make," he told the state TV channel
ERT.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Aug/19/images/ads/current/humanesociety_sda022411.png) Greece has already been bailed out twice since 2010 by the euro zone
and International Monetary Fund. Tsipras secured the third program
by promising to impose reform and austerity policies that are so
onerous that a sizeable number of lawmakers from his radical left
Syriza party rejected the deal in parliament.
Lafazanis, whom Tsipras sacked for a previous rebellion, has already
taken a step toward breaking away from the party by calling for a
new anti-bailout movement.
"We ... will not under any guise or pretext give the 'green light'
to anyone to implement this third bailout," he told the real.gr news
website on Wednesday, saying the deal would perpetuate the
destructive policies of "relentless austerity and degrading
servitude" PRIME MINISTER OF ALL GREEKS
On Friday, support for the government from within its own coalition
parties fell below 120 votes, the minimum needed to survive a
confidence vote if some others abstain. The main conservative
opposition New Democracy party and the small socialist party PASOK
have both ruled out supporting Tsipras after voting for the bailout
to save the country from ruin.
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However, neither has said whether it would vote against Tsipras or
merely abstain.
The speculation has led to opposition accusations that Tsipras, who
remains popular despite his U-turn on resisting austerity, wants
elections simply to deal with his own internal rebellion.
Xydakis said this should not be so. "What is most important at this
phase is that the government serve the interests of the Greek people
and not those of the party," he said. "Tsipras is the prime minister
of 11 million Greeks, not of 30,000 members of the Syriza party."
The bailout program cleared one of its final hurdles on Wednesday
when parliament in Germany - the biggest contributor to the bailouts
- approved it overwhelmingly.
Greece came close to financial collapse before Tsipras negotiated
the deal, forcing him to close the banks for three weeks and impose
capital controls on money leaving the banking system which have
since been eased slightly, but not removed.
(Additional reporting by Karlina Tagaris. Writing by David Stamp
Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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