Why Greeks are voting sooner than planned

Why is debt-strapped Greece holding early elections?

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras pushed lenders for better terms, failed, then conceded. Anti-austerity diehards mutinied.

Tsipras resigned to seek a fresh endorsement: “With your vote, you will judge if the agreement has the right conditions to break this impasse, to help revive the economy, and whether this helps us to put an end to memoranda and cruel austerity measures.”

Promising to end austerity was what landed Tsipras the job in January’s elections. His SYRIZA party won a place in history as the first left-wing group ever to lead a government in Greece.

Tsipras boasted: “The verdict of the Greek people ends, beyond any doubt, the vicious circle of austerity in our country.”

They loved the sound of that, but cheering faded as he boomeranged between Athens and Brussels and the creditors didn’t give him what he wanted.

Greece shut the banks as June expired; people were pumping cash out, it had to stop. The government