Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has announced he is resigning and has called an early election.
Mr
Tsipras, who was only elected in January, said he had a moral duty to
go to the polls now a third bailout had been secured with European
creditors.
The election date is yet to be set but earlier reports suggested 20 September.
Mr
Tsipras will lead his leftist Syriza party into the polls, but he has
faced a rebellion by some members angry at the bailout's austerity
measures.
He had to agree to painful state sector cuts, including
far-reaching pension reforms, in exchange for the bailout - and keeping
Greece in the eurozone.
Greece received the first €13bn ($14.5bn)
tranche of the bailout on Thursday after it was approved by relevant
European parliaments.
It allowed Greece to repay a €3.2bn debt to the European Central Bank and avoid a messy default.
The overall bailout package is worth about €86bn over three years.
Lost majority
Alexis Tsipras made the announcement in a televised state address on Thursday.
"The
political mandate of the 25 January elections has exhausted its limits
and now the Greek people have to have their say," he said.
Mr Tsipras said he would seek the Greek people's approval to continue his government's programme. Analysis: Chris Buckler, BBC News, Athens
In
January, Alexis Tsipras went to the polls in Greece as a man who would
stand against austerity. What a difference seven months makes. Now he is
calling elections to ask the Greek public to support the way he is
trying to lead this country out of its financial crisis.
That
means spending cuts, tax rises and, of course, that third bailout that's
already been agreed. All of that is opposed by a sizeable number of
hard-left MPs within his own party, Syriza.
Mr Tsipras will argue
this election is about bringing certainty to Greece's future. In the
short-term at least, though, it will create political uncertainty. And
that's becoming a pretty familiar feeling here in Athens. Mr Tsipras said Greeks would have to decide whether he had represented them courageously with the creditors.
He
will visit President Prokopis Pavlopoulos later in the evening to
submit his resignation. Greece will then be run by a caretaker
government.
Reacting to the news, Martin Selmayr, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's chief-of-staff, tweeted that "swift elections in Greece can be a way to broaden support" for the bailout deal.
Some
43 of Syriza's 149 MPs had either opposed the bailout or abstained in
last Friday's Greek parliamentary vote that approved the deal.
The rebellion meant Mr Tsipras, who was elected this January, had effectively lost his parliamentary majority.
Mr Tsipras had won power on a manifesto of opposing the stringent austerity conditions that he has now accepted.
He
said he was forced to do so because a majority of Greeks wanted to stay
in the eurozone, and this could not be achieved in any other way.
Greece remains under strict capital controls, with weekly limits on cash withdrawals for Greek citizens.
If a government resigns within a year of election, the constitution
requires the president to ask the second-largest party - in this case
the conservative New Democracy - to try to form an administration.
If this fails, the next largest party must be given a chance.
However, analysts say both parties can waive this and allow the president to approve the snap election.
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