Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras has resigned. He has asked the president for the earliest possible election. Government sources say the vote will take place on September 20. <br /><br /> Tsipras is hoping to seal public support for the country’s third bailout programme and crush a rebellion inside his Syriza party. <br /><br /> “I am proud of the battle my government and I have fought,” said Tsipras in a televised address. “We fought to stay true to our promises. We negotiated hard and insistently, for a very long time, we held out against pressures and blackmail. It’s true, we reached the limit. But we made the Greek issue into an international issue.”<br /><br /> Tsipras had fought Greece’s creditors for a better bailout deal but was forced to accept their demands for more austerity and economic reform. <br /><br /> Euronews correspondent Kostas said: “By asking for elections, Alexis Tsipras is looking to clear the landscape inside his party and to take advantage of his popularity. But over the next few days, he will n