ATHENS, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Greece's far-left leader on Thursday formally gave up a bid to form a coalition government, allowing the country's president to finally set a date for early elections after a week of political wrangling. After using up all three days allowed, Popular Unity leader Panagiotis Lafazanis relinquished a mandate to form a government, given to him as head of the third-largest bloc in parliament after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras resigned last week. "I think we can go to elections in keeping with the spirit of the constitution," Lafazanis told President Prokopis Pavlopoulos in a meeting at the president's office. Pavlopoulos is expected to check once more with party leaders on the odds of forming a coalition before installing a caretaker government to take the country to elections. The announcement on the election, which could take place as early as Sept. 20., is expected by Friday. Greece's constitution stipulates the three biggest parties in parliament get a shot at forming a coalition if a prime minister resigns within a year of taking power. Both Lafazanis and the main conservative opposition New Democracy party before him used up the three days each was allotted despite having virtually no chance of success. The conservatives defended the delay tactics, saying all must be done to avoid a new round of elections that Greece does not need. Lafazanis - who broke his rebel far-left faction away from Tsipras's Syriza party last week, taking a sixth of its lawmakers with him - used his three days to air his anti-bailout message. Tsipras remains hugely popular in Greece despite making a U-turn to accept a bailout program and opposition parties feel a longer campaign period offers a better chance of denting his popularity as austerity cuts from the bailout start kicking in. NO COOPERATION No major polls have been published in recent weeks but Syriza is expected to once again emerge as the biggest party in parliament when the snap election is held. But Tsipras is not expected to secure an absolute majority, forcing him to find a coalition partner, failing which a second round of elections could be held. In an interview with Alpha TV on Wednesday, Tsipras stood by previous comments that his party would not cooperate with New Democracy and the Socialist PASOK, which took turns ruling Greece for decades before Syriza swept to power this year. (function(){var src_url="https://spshared.5min.com/Scripts/PlayerSeed.js?playList=519034165&height=381&width=570&sid=577&origin=SOLR&videoGroupID=155847&relatedNumOfResults=100&responsive=false&relatedMode=2&relatedBottomHeight=60&companionPos=&hasCompanion=false&autoStart=false&colorPallet=%23FFEB00&videoControlDisplayColor=%23191919&shuffle=0&isAP=1&pgType=cmsPlugin&pgTypeId=addToPost-top&onVideoDataLoaded=track5min.DL&onTimeUpdate=track5min.TC&onVideoDataLoaded=HPTrack.Vid.DL&onTimeUpdate=HPTrack.Vid.TC";if (typeof(commercial_video) == "object") {src_url += "&siteSection="+commercial_video.site_and_category;if (commercial_video.package) {src_url += "&sponsorship="+commercial_video.package;}}var script = document.createElement("script");script.src = src_url;script.async = true;var placeholder = document.querySelector(".js-fivemin-script");placeholder.parentElement.replaceChild(script, placeholder);})(); He also ruled out a tie-up with the new centrist To Potami party that espouses a strong pro-euro message, effectively leaving his current coalition partner - the right-wing Independent Greeks - as the only potential ally. "Our differences are very significant," Tsipras said. "I believe all these three parties express the old party system. Certainly, I will not be the prime minister." The comments prompted a backlash from opposition figures on Thursday, who accused Tsipras of blackmailing voters with the dilemma of choosing either him or facing a political deadlock. "Yesterday Mr. Tsipras made a huge provocation, saying to citizens whatever you vote I will not cooperate," Stavros Theodorakis, leader of To Potami, told Mega TV. "...In other words what? Elections again in October, if the Independent Greeks do not make it to parliament?" Also on HuffPost: -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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