Greece’s Alexis Tsipras wins second general election in nine months

Lorenzo Gaudenzi

TSIPRAS stated that Greeks have faced a rocky road and that financial crisis will be defeated through hard work.

The charismatic leader won just over 35 per cent, a lower percentage than previous results and is still short of a majority vote.

Sunday´s election was called after the ruling party Syriza lost its majority in August because Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras agreed a new bailout deal with European leaders. Some of his MPs who had opposed the new bailout conditions split to form a new party, but it has failed to get into parliament as the turnout was low.

Prior to the election, pollsters and pundits were declaring a neck-to-neck battle with its conservative rivals, New Democracy. However, Syriza won a comfortable vote and can form a coalition government with its previous partner, the nationalist Independent Greeks.

The stark truth is that celebrations have been put on hold in Greece, apart from the few hundreds gathering to sing and dance. There are still tough times ahead for Greece -tax rises and perhaps further cuts to wages. The Tsipras inbox will be in overload, which no- one could envy.

The newly elected leader commented:

“I feel vindicated because the Greek people have a clear mandate to carry on fighting inside and outside our country to uphold the pride of our people.”

The Greek electoral system proclaims that the party with the largest figure of votes wins a bonus of 50 seats – and Syriza will have 145 seats in the 300-seat parliament, only four fewer than in Mr Tsipras’s January victory.

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