Greece: Premier asks for snap elections after EU polls

After poor showing by ruling party in European Parliament elections last month, Alexis Tsipras seeks new polls on July 7

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ATHENS (AA) - Meeting with Greece’s president on Monday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras requested the dissolution of parliament and snap polls following his party’s poor performance in European Union elections two weeks ago.

“With a full sense of this responsibility, I ask you to dissolve Parliament and call for national elections to renew the mandate,” Tsipras told President Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

The scheduled national elections were not due until this October, when the four-year term of Tsipras’ government ends.

In the European Parliament elections, which Greece held on May 26, the ruling left-wing Syriza party finished second, a poor runner-up to the conservative opposition New Democracy party.

The government wants the snap polls to be held on July 7, less than a month away.

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