Rebels from Greece’s governing left-wing Syriza are to break away and form a new party.

Prime Minister and Syriza Leader, Alexis Tsipras, stood down on Thursday, paving the way for new elections.

The move came after he lost the support of many of his own MPs in a vote on the country’s new bailout with European creditors earlier this month.

Greek media reports said that 25 rebel Syriza MPs would join the new party, called Laiki Enotita (Popular Unity).

The party would be led by former Energy Minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, who was strongly opposed to the bailout deal, reports said.

The Syriza Labour Minister, George Katrougalos, said that the government needed to “reconfirm its mandate” to implement the third Greek bailout and that the party is “crippled by a number of dissident Mps”.

“This is the essence of democracy, we do not have any problem to ask the people. We do not want to govern against the popular will,” he said, adding that Tspiras and his government were “confident in rightness of our policies and the maturity of the Greek electorate”.

On Friday, the Head of Conservative, New Democracy Party, Vangelis Meimarakis, met with Greece’s President and would  be given three days to form a government.

Observers, however, said that he does not have enough support and elections would be called.