Greek PM declares snap polls after EU election loss

ATHENS

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for early elections after his party suffered huge defeat in European Parliament elections on Sunday.

The ruling left-wing Syriza party received 24% while the main opposition conservative New Democracy party got 32.8 % of the votes.

In a televised speech, Tsipras said at his party headquarters that the election result "does not meet our expectations".

The Greek premier would meet with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos after the second round of local elections on June 2 and ask for the dissolution of parliament and an early national election.

Greek general elections were scheduled to be held after the government's term ends in October, however, Sunday's announcement indicated the elections could be held on June 30.