SYRIZA govt plans Greek elections as early as Sept. 13

The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) government’s main goal at the moment is to reach an agreement with lenders (EC, ECB, IMF and ESM) so as to clear the political scene and start its new three-year bailout program along with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s development package worth 35 bln euros. The government leadership hopes for the new package to be agreed upon by all sides before Wednesday and be ratified by Greek Parliament prior to the Eurogroup meeting on Friday.

There is optimism that Eurogroup will approve the agreement and release the first installment by August 20, just in time for Greece to pay off 3.2 bln euros to the European Central Bank.

Greek Parliament will open specifically to discuss and vote on the package as it is in recess ahead of the August 15 public holiday in Greece. Another option would be for the agreement to be approved by Eurogroup and pass through Greek Parliament next Tuesday.

Everything seems to be on course towards a resolution unless of course there are hitches on one of the thorny issues still left for discussion. Following the agreement, an election date will be announced.

It is a certainty that SYRIZA’s Left Platform leader Panagiotis Lafazanis will vote against the agreement, meaning that the government would lose its presidential majority.

As a result, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will need to visit President Prokopis Pavlopoulos – possibly after the first installment of the bailout – to seek the creation of a special purpose government.

In separate interviews over the weekend, State Minister Nikos Pappas told Real News that SYRIZA would not participate in a special purpose government and Reconstruction Minister Panos Skourletis declared his opposition to the creation of one in Kontranews.

Bearing this in mind, the government would need to head to elections should it lose the majority in Greek Parliament. There is already a great deal of speculation concerning the date of new elections with September 13 or September 20 being likely.