VIDEO: Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras to resign on Thursday

Tsipras resigns but eyes strong return in vote.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras resigned last night, but will be hoping to strengthen his hold on power in snap elections following seven months in office in which he fought Greece’s creditors for a better bailout deal but had to cave in.

Tsipras submitted his resignation to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and asked for the earliest possible election date.

Government officials said the aim is to hold the election on September 20, with Tsipras seeking to quell a rebellion in his leftist Syriza party and seal public support for the bailout programme, Greece’s third since 2010, that he negotiated.

“I will go to the president of the republic shortly to submit my resignation, as well as the resignation of my government,” Tsipras said in a televised address shortly before he met Pavlopoulos.

Faced with a near collapse of the Greek financial system which threatened the country’s future in the euro, Tsipras was forced to accept troika demands for yet more austerity and economic reform, the very policies he had promised to scrap when he was elected in January.

“I want to be honest with you. We did not achieve the agreement we expected before the January elections,” he said.

“I feel the deep ethical and political responsibility to put to your judgment all I have done, successes and failures.”

His decision to return to the ballot box deepens political uncertainty on the very day Greece began receiving funds under its €86bn bailout programme, five years after a previous government took the first bailout from the eurozone and IMF.

A snap election should allow Tsipras to capitalise on his popularity with Greek voters before the toughest parts of the latest programme begin to bite, and may allow him to return to power in a stronger position without anti-bailout rebels in Syriza to slow him down.

Tsipras had long been expected to seek early elections in the autumn. He was forced to move quickly after nearly a third of Syriza members refused to back the programme in parliament last week, robbing him of his majority.

Greece’s complex constitution has special stipulations for holding elections less than 12 months after the previous vote, meaning the president must first consult other major parties to see if they can form a government, a highly unlikely option.