Syriza Rebels in Greece Form New Party called Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity)

Greece’s President on Friday Aug 21,2015 asked opposition leaders to try to form a new government, a day after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned and called an early election next month to deal with a governing party rebellion over Greece’s third bailout deal.

But the opposition has little chance of uniting and forming a government so quickly, meaning that after more than five years of a worsening financial crisis, Greece is headed for its fifth national election in six years.

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos met conservative New Democracy party head Evangelos Meimarakis on Friday and asked him to try to form a government.
Evangelos Meimarakis has three days to seek coalition partners before having to return the mandate, which would then go to the third largest party the new radical group that left Syriza.
Those 25 lawmakers, who will be called Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity), are led by former energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis.

What is Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity)? The new left-wing party has 25 rebel Syriza MPs, who object to Mr Tsipras's acceptance of more austerity.
Its leader, Panagiotis Lafazanis, argues that Greece would be better off leaving the euro and going back to the drachma.


Note

Syriza won 149 seats in Greece's 300-seat parliament in the last election in January 2015 and the Conservative New Democracy party came second, with 76 seats.