Tsipras officially begins the procedure for the early general elections in Greece

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will officially ask President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to call for early general elections, to be held on July 7th.

Tsipras announced the elections after the major defeat his leftist SYRIZA party suffered in the European and municipal elections, where the conservative New Democracy party swept nearly all Greek prefectures and especially in the north, where voters are seething after the Prespa treaty.

New Democracy opposes the Prespa treaty and the likely next Prime Minister Kyriakos Mistotakis said he will reassert the Greek right to block Macedonia from opening EU accession talks, even if the country respects the Prespa treaty in full.