MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Left Platform, led by Greece’s former Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis, said in a Thursday statement that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s deal with the creditors is "completely and radically opposed to the hitherto commitments and struggles of Syriza."
The left-wing Syriza party, led by Tsipras, promised to revise Greece’s austerity measures, unpopular with the population, after securing victory in the January parliamentary elections.
When Greece’s second bailout program expired on June 30, negotiations with the creditors stalled, however, eventually Athens reached a deal with its lenders, agreeing on more austerity reforms, such as tax hikes and pension cuts.
The Eurogroup approved the third, 86-billion-euro ($95-billion) bailout package for Greece on August 14.
Tsipras, who has been facing dissent in his anti-austerity Syriza party, announced his resignation on Thursday to open the possibility of early general elections in a bid to secure support for his stand on the new bailout agreement with the country's creditors.
According to latest media reports, Greece could hold snap parliamentary elections as early as on September 20.
Syriza’s Left Platform, which has 30% of the seats on the party’s central committee, plans to stand in the elections against all agreements with the creditors.
In a July nation-wide referendum, the majority of Greeks voted against a lender-proposed bailout plan, which contained strict austerity measures.
