Gamble Pays Off For Tsipras After Election Win
Alexis Tsipras says he feels "vindicated" by his victory, weeks after he resigned as Greece's leader to spark the new vote.
Monday 21 September 2015 02:22, UK
Alexis Tsipras has vowed to serve a full four-year term as Greece's Prime Minister - after weary voters took part in the country's fifth general election since 2009.
The charismatic leader of the Syriza Party secured 35.5% of the vote, with New Democracy coming in second place with a 28.1% share.
Opinion polls conducted on Friday had put Mr Tsipras and Vangelis Meimarakis, his conservative rival, just half a percentage point apart.
However, Syriza is still six seats short of an overall majority, so the left-wing party has to form a coalition with the Independent Greeks - a right-wing group with 10 seats.
The result means that a high-risk gamble by Mr Tsipras has paid off.
After a controversial €86bn bailout deal was finalised with EU creditors three weeks ago, he resigned as Prime Minister, triggering a snap election.
As the package includes painful austerity measures, something Mr Tsipras had pledged to avoid back in January, he had faced criticism for breaking promises and making a significant U-turn by election campaign rivals.
Some Syriza ministers had also defected to form a new anti-bailout party but their Popular Unity group fell short of the 3% threshold required to send MPs to parliament.
Mr Tsipras has publicly said he disagrees with the austerity measures to be implemented, but maintains that Greece would have faced bankruptcy and ejection from the Euro without it.
Once his re-election became assured, Mr Tsipras said: "I feel vindicated because the Greek people gave us a clear mandate to continue our struggle, inside and outside the country, to lift our pride."
, with a pension system to overhaul, tax hikes to implement and a 2016 budget to draft.
The new government will also need to tackle the ongoing migration crisis, as hundreds of refugees continue to arrive on Greece's eastern islands after travelling on overcrowded inflatable dinghies.
Meanwhile, the head of the eurozone group of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, has congratulated Mr Tsipras, adding that he was "looking forward to continuing the reform process".