(UPD)-PM Alexis Tsipras said the unity of the party should be safeguarded during his address at the party’s Political Secretariat meeting. He added that the party should prepare to hold a convention as soon as possible, stressing that all mistakes and the results of the negotiations leading to the agreement during the EU-19 Summit should be scrutinized in detail.

The ‘battle lines’ between the hardcore leftist platform and the more moderate faction within the left party SYRIZA have been drawn, especially after the two first votes in the Greek Parliament regarding the imposition of the harshest austerity measures yet- prior-actions arising from the agreement with the EU19-Summit of July 12- where 30 SYRIZA MPs voted against both bills.

This schism will be tested even more Monday afternoon, when the party’s Political Secretariat is scheduled to convene and take stock of the situation so far and the rift within the party. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras will be present at the meeting and is expected to come under immense pressure by the left platform led by former Minister of Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis.

The leftist dissenters want a party convention to be called as soon as possible to examine the party’s governmental strategy after it agreed to the Troika’s harsh plan. The government led by Tsipras stresses it is impossible to go back on the deal as this would jeopardize the country’s funding for the next 3 years.

The left platform has warned that it is willing to take extreme action by splitting from SYRIZA and withdrawing its support from the coalition government. This would mean that the Greek government would lack the necessary 151 majority in Parliament to govern, an outcome that could lead to early elections come Autumn.