ATHENS — Greece’s former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he is quitting as leader of the Syriza party after a crushing defeat in last Sunday’s elections.

“The time has come to start a new cycle,” Tsipras said, calling for his center-left party to be reformed.

The conservative New Democracy (ND) party won nearly 41% of the vote, leaving Syriza far behind on 18%.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who leads ND, said he now has a “strong mandate” to move on the path of change.

Mitsotakis beat Syriza in May — but called new elections in a bid to win a majority in a 300-member parliament.

Under Greek rules for a second election, the biggest party is awarded a bonus of between 20 and 50 seats.

After Sunday’s poll, ND won all 50 — and now has 158 lawmakers.

Tsipras’ resignation announcement came in a televised statement on Thursday.

He said “the negative [election] result can — and must — become the beginning” of a new cycle for Syriza.

The politician added that he was now calling “elections within Syriza for a new leader, in which I will not be a candidate”.

Tsipras, now 48, was Greece’s prime minister from 2015-19 and was the country’s youngest leader in 150 years.

He was swept to power, vowing to abolish EU-imposed austerity measures to overcome Greece’s massive government-debt crisis.

But he reneged on those pledges soon afterwards, and is remembered by many Greeks as a politician who nearly crashed the country out of the eurozone. — BBC