ATHENS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced his intention to call early national elections, acknowledging his Radical Left SYRIZA party's defeat to conservatives in the European parliament elections and local elections on Sunday evening.
In statements broadcast live on national broadcaster ERT after the release of the first official results, the Greek leader said that he will visit the Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to start the procedures after the second round of local government elections next Sunday.
"We requested Greek people's vote of confidence to our plan for the future. Today's results allow the opposition to question the plan to exit the crisis. People have the final verdict," Tsipras said.
According to the provisions in the Greek constitution regarding timetables after the dissolution of the parliament, in such case Greece is heading to snap elections most likely in June. The government's term would expire in October this year.
The main opposition New Democracy party wins the European parliament elections with 32.7 percent of votes against 24 percent for the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA party, according to estimates based on the first official results.
During the pre-election campaign Tsipras turned the European elections and local elections into a kind of referendum on his government's policies and lost the wager, media commentators noted.
