ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece should hold a snap election to avert a protracted period of political uncertainty that could hurt its economic recovery, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told the country’s president on Monday.

Tsipras decided to pull general elections forward after his party suffered a heavy defeat at a European election last month. The main opposition, the conservative New Democracy party, won that vote by 9.5 points.

The government has previously said it wants to hold general elections on July 7.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou)