The Syriza party's leader, Alexis Tsipras, has announced his resignation following a humiliating loss in last Sunday's elections. Tsipras was the former prime minister of Greece.
Mr. Tsipras urged reform of his center-left party, saying, "The time has come to start a new cycle.".
With Syriza far behind with only 18% of the vote, the conservative New Democracy (ND) party came out on top.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the prime minister of ND, claims he now has a "strong mandate" to proceed with change.
Despite defeating Syriza in May, Mr. Mitsotakis called fresh elections in an effort to gain a majority in the 300-member parliament.
According to Greek election regulations, the largest party receives a bonus of 20 to 50 seats.
ND won all 50 after the election on Sunday, giving them 158 lawmakers overall.
On Thursday, Mr. Tsipras made his resignation known in a televised statement.
According to him, Syriza's new cycle can and must start with the "negative [election] result.
The politician continued, "Elections for a new leader within Syriza are now being called, in which I will not be a candidate.
The youngest prime minister of Greece in 150 years, Mr. Tsipras, now 48, held the position from 2015 to 2019.
He was elected with a landslide, promising to end the austerity measures imposed by the EU to resolve Greece's severe government debt crisis.
However, he quickly backtracked on those promises, and many Greeks remember him as the politician who almost caused the nation to leave the eurozone.
