Greece Chooses Anti-Austerity Party in

Major Shift
By JIM YARDLEY and LIZ ALDERMANJAN. 25, 2015
Photo

Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza party, celebrating on Sunday in Athens. Mr. Tsipras
has promised to force creditors to renegotiate the terms of Greeces bailout. Credit
Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press
ATHENS Greece rejected the harsh economics of austerity on Sunday and sent a
warning to the rest of Europe as the left-wing Syriza party won a decisive victory in
national elections, positioning its tough-talking leader, Alexis Tsipras, to become the
next prime minister.
With almost 98 percent of the vote counted, Syriza had 36 percent, almost nine points
more than the governing center-right New Democracy party of Prime Minister Antonis
Samaras, who conceded defeat. The only uncertainty was whether Syriza would muster
a parliamentary majority on its own or have to form a coalition.
Appearing before a throng of supporters outside Athens University late Sunday, Mr.
Tsipras, 40, declared that the era of austerity was over and promised to revive the
economy. He also said his government would not allow Greeces creditors to strangle
the country.

Greece will now move ahead with hope and reach out to Europe, and Europe is going
to change, he said. The verdict is clear: We will bring an end to the vicious circle of
austerity.
Photo

Greek voters gave power to Syriza as the countrys unemployment rate stood near 26
percent. Credit Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press
Syrizas victory is a milestone for Europe. Continuing economic weakness has stirred a
populist backlash from France to Spain to Italy, with more voters growing fed up with
policies that require sacrifice to meet the demands of creditors but that have not
delivered more jobs and prosperity. Syriza is poised to become the first anti-austerity
party to take power in a eurozone country and to shatter the two-party establishment that
has dominated Greek politics for four decades.
Democracy will return to Greece, Mr. Tsipras said to a swarm of journalists as he cast
his ballot in Athens. The message is that our common future in Europe is not the future
of austerity.
Youthful and seemingly imperturbable, Mr. Tsipras has worked to soften his image as an
anti-European Union radical, joking that his opponents had accused him of everything
but stealing other mens wives. On the campaign trail, he has promised to clean up
Greeces corrupt political system, overhaul the countrys public administration and
reduce the tax burden on the middle class while cracking down on tax evasion by the
countrys oligarchical business class.
But his biggest promise and the one that has stirred deep anxiety in Brussels and
Berlin as well as in financial markets has been a pledge to force Greeces creditors to
renegotiate the terms of its financial bailout, worth 240 billion euros, or about $267.5
billion. Squeezed by policies intended to stabilize the governments finances, Greece
has endured a historic collapse since 2009; economic output has shrunk by 25 percent,
and the unemployment rate hovers near 26 percent.
While setting up an imminent showdown with creditors, led by Chancellor Angela
Merkel of Germany, Mr. Tsipras has argued that easing the bailout terms would allow
more government spending. That, he said, would stimulate economic growth and
employment as well as help the Greeks who are most in need.

Tsipras won because those who imposed austerity never thought about the effects of
such drastic policies that impoverished millions of people, said Paul De Grauwe, a
professor at the London School of Economics and a former adviser to the European
Commission. In a world where people are so hit, they just dont remain passive. Their
reaction is to turn to the politicians who will change the process.
Photo

Mr. Tsipras, leader of the left-wing Syriza party, cast his vote in Athens on Sunday.
Credit Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press
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Mr. Tsipras will face immediate challenges. Greece is waiting for a 7 billion bailout
payment needed to keep the government running and to pay off billions in debt
obligations due in the coming months. Mr. Tsipras has demanded that creditors write
down at least half of Greeces 319 billion public debt to give the country more
breathing room for a spending stimulus.
This is a turning of a page, a historical moment for all of Europe, Yiannis Milios, the
chief economist for Syriza, told reporters. The Greek people are taking their future into
their own hands.
Europe cannot go on with deflation, recession, increasing unemployment and overindebtednesses, he said. Greece points the way. Our country, our people, are the
groundbreakers of a very big change.
A Syriza victory would lift hopes elsewhere for parties that are critical of the European
Union, especially in Spain. There, the left-leaning, anti-austerity Podemos party, which
is less than a year old, already is drawing 20 percent support in national opinion polls.
The leader of Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, joined Mr. Tsipras last week for Syrizas final
campaign rally.
What the whole debate about Greece and Syriza highlights is that voter anxieties, voter
resentment and electoral disillusionment over austerity policies can be expressed at the
ballot, said Jens Bastian, an economic consultant based in Athens and a former
member of the European Commissions task force on Greece. The example of Greece
today may become a precursor to what happens in other countries like Spain, Portugal
or Italy.

Mr. Tsipras has said he wants to negotiate directly with Ms. Merkel and other European
leaders to reduce Greeces debt burden. Some officials, however, have characterized Mr.
Tsiprass demands as unrealistic and rife with potential to drive Greece toward default
or even out of the eurozone, the group that shares the currency.
Photo

Supporters of Mr. Tsipras cheered as exit poll results were announced in Athens. Credit
Marko Djurica/Reuters
Earlier concerns that a Syriza-led Greece would abandon the euro have been fading, but
Mr. Tsiprass confrontational stance on renegotiating the bailout could create a game of
chicken with Greeces creditors. Mr. Tsipras has insisted that he will not adhere to the
bailouts austerity conditions; Greeces creditors insist that they will not disburse funds
unless he does.
Mr. Tsipras has pledged immediate action, including restoring electricity to poor
families who were unable to pay their bills. He has promised to raise the minimum
monthly wage to 751 from 586 for all workers, restore collective bargaining
agreements, prohibit mass layoffs and create 300,000 jobs.
Jens Weidmann, president of Deutsche Bundesbank, the German central bank, warned
that Greece would remain dependent on outside financial support and that the new
government should not make promises that the country cannot afford.
I hope the new government wont call into question what is expected and what has
already been achieved, Mr. Weidmann said in an interview with Germanys public
broadcaster.
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On the streets of Athens, voters expressed a range of emotions as they went to the polls.
At a polling station in Mets, a middle-class district near central Athens, Achilleas
Mandrakis, 47, said he runs a garage but has been struggling since his wife lost her job
at a shoe store. I always voted New Democracy, and I never trusted the leftists, he

said. But enough is enough, really. We kept giving them a chance, but they messed up.
Theyve made our lives miserable.
Photo

Continuing economic weakness has stirred a populist backlash as more voters grow fed
up with policies that demand sacrifice. Credit Milos Bicanski/Getty Images
At least, Mr. Mandrakis added, a different party might change something in this
mess, anything.
In a brief news conference late Sunday, Mr. Samaras vowed that his party would
continue to play a role in Greek politics and defended his government. I received the
country at the edge of a cliff, he said. I was asked to take burning coals into my
hands, and I did it.
Mr. Samaras said that Greece had moved away from deficits and recession and that his
government had restored the credibility of the country.
For Syriza, the immediate question was whether the party would win the 151 seats
needed for a majority in Parliament. Projections suggested a close final result. If he falls
short, Mr. Tsipras might align with the Independent Greeks, a center-right fringe party
that opposes austerity measures and might push for a harder line in any debt
negotiations.
Early returns also showed the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party in third place with
roughly 6 percent of the total vote, even with some of its leaders campaigning from
prison, awaiting trial on charges of being in a criminal gang.
While Greece sees itself as being punished by creditors demands, Germany and a host
of European officials have argued that Greece and other troubled nations in the
eurozone must clean up the high debts and deficits at the root of Europes crisis. They
say Athens has failed to make enough progress on structural reforms seen as necessary
to stabilize the economy, and they are pressing Greece to raise billions of euros through
more budgetary cutbacks and taxes.
Many analysts say Mr. Tsipras must moderate his campaign promises and take a more
centrist approach if he wants to save the economy and keep Greece solvent. That will
be the best possible outcome for Greece and for Europe, because it would show that
these protest movements ultimately recognize reality which is that they are in the

euro, and they have to play by the rules, said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at
the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Otherwise, he warned, things could get a lot worse.
Very, very quickly, he added.
Dimitris Bounias and Niki Kitsantonis contributed reporting.