Elections in Greece: Syriza Party Wins

15:51     26 January, 2015

On January 25 in the early Parliamentary elections in Greece the left-wing "Syriza" party won receiving 36% of the votes. The 40-years-old leader of the party Alexis Tsipras became the youngest Prime Minister in the history of Greece. In the Parliament Syriza will have 149 out of 300 parliamentary seats, which means that to become a majority in the Parliamnet it lacks only 2 seats. On the second place with 23-27% of votes is the "New Democracy" party.

At the same time information is being circulated about the formation of unity between the leftist "Syriza" and the right centered "Independent Greeks" party, which have won 13 seats in the Parliament.

The leader of the right-wing "New Democracy" party, the Prime Minister of Greece Antonis Samaras conceded his defeat and congratulated Tsipras for winning the elections. "The Greek people said its word and we respect its decision," – said Samaras. He promised that his party will play a decisive role in the Parliament and will maintain the European path.

It should be noted that "Syriza’ party is against the Greece financial dependence from Brussels that is why it is possible that they will raise the question of coming out from eurozone. In Greece there are different opinions concerning coming out from eurozone, but it should be mentioned that the country has not come out from the financial crisis yet. It still has the need of the EU’s help, consequently the possibility of its coming out from eurozone decreases.

The election results will be the main topic of January 26 meeting of eurozone finance ministers. It should be noted that early election in Greece were appointed after the Parliament could not elect a president and according to the Constitution, the Parliament dissolved.

Information

40-years-old Alexis Tsipras has started to engage in politics since his school years. In 1980s he joined the Young Communists Society. In his school years he was studying the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin.

98% of the Greek population is Orthodox Christians. However, Tsipras in 2008 declared that he is an atheist. This fact still continues to be manipulated by the opposition. Despite this, during his campaign, Tsipras visited to Holy Athon monastery and gained the sympathy of the believers.  

 In 1991 after the dissolution of the Communist party he was included in the left-wing coalition. The rise of his political career has started since 2008, when in the election for the leader of the radical left-wing forces he received 70.41% of the voices.