The gamble pays off: Tsipras voted back into power in Greece

Greek leftist Alexis Tsipras stormed back into office with an unexpectedly decisive election victory on Sunday, claiming a clear mandate to steer Greece’s battered economy to recovery. In a near repeat of January’s general election, his Syriza party fell just shy of an outright majority but will form a coalition with his former partners, the small rightwing Independent Greeks party. A jubilant Tsipras  promised a new phase of stability in a country that has held five general elections in six years. He vowed to serve his full four-year term as leader.

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.

Alexis Tsipras

Tsipras’s first task after forming a government will be to persuade European Union lenders that enough agreed steps have been made to ensure the next payment. The bailout program is due for a review next month. More than two dozen of his lawmakers abandoned him last month, many saying he had betrayed his principles. He argued that his tough negotiating stance had softened the blow of austerity and had helped persuade creditors to agree a restructuring of Greek debt. But with Tsipras and his main opponents now all committed to the bailout, the deep divisions that had polarized Greece and given rise to volatile politics appear less extreme for now.

After years of almost unprecedented crisis, the vast majority of Greeks are endorsing parties that are promising to keep the country in the euro even if that implies thorough and painful reforms.

Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Germany’s Berenberg bank.

Politics Greece Tsipras