So Alexis Tsipras is Greece’s new Prime Minister. Syriza, the extreme-left party he leads, may end up (just) short of an overall majority. But it won a landslide today – and no one will stand in the way for making government policy of its party programme.
This means we’re guaranteed turbulence ahead, both in Greek and Eurozone politics. Syriza is no club for chic leftist posturing, nor is it a discussion circle for grey-haired Marxist academics. It is a coalition of hard and soft communists, violent and peaceful revolutionaries, eco-warriors, radical socialists and a hotchpotch of lefties that think it is an act of fascism to take away bonuses to public servants for washing their hands.
They are all out on a mission – and their leader is young, telegenic and compelling. In the rest of Europe, Tsipras may come across as the acceptable face of Miliband-esque or Hollande-style social democracy, its version originale, but a good part of his party is less excited about renegotiating Greece’s debt than with putting the hammer and the sickle in the EU flag.
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