Greece's left-wing opposition leader Alexis Tsipras speaks to supporters at his party's main election rally in central Athens Thursday, May 22, 2014
An anti-bailout party in Greece is leading in opinion polls before this weekend's local government and European elections, and is vowing to scrap international agreements that rescued the country's economy from bankruptcy at the cost of harsh austerity.
Three opinion polls published Thursday found that support for the left-wing Syriza party was running 2.5 percent to 3.2 percent ahead of the conservative New Democracy party, which leads Greece's coalition government.
Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras declared at his party's main election rally in Athens that a Syriza victory in Sunday's twin polls would force the government to call early parliamentary elections.
The 39-year-old Tsipras is also running as a left-wing candidate for the continent's top political job, European Commission president.