Left-wing Syriza sweeps to power with 149 seats – two short of outright rule

  • Leader Alexis Tsipras agrees deal with far-right party to form government
  • He has promised to renegotiate Greece’s €240billion international bailout
  • Sworn in this afternoon – making him the youngest Greek PM for 150 years
  • His victory has been hailed by other anti-austerity parties across Europe 
  • Spain’s Podemos party is vowing a similar general election win this year
  • Euro hits 11-year low against the dollar at $1.1088 in Tokyo today while the pound hits seven-year high at €1.34

Greek’s new Prime Minister has nodded to his Communist influences – and his country’s fraught history within Europe – by laying flowers for resistance fighters killed by the Nazis.

Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the triumphant ant-bailout party Syriza, visited the National Resistance Memorial in Athens as his first official act after being sworn as the country’s leader today.

The act was seen as highly symbolic, given Syriza’s policies have put it in conflict with other countries across Europe and particularly Germany.

On May 1, 1944, occupying Nazi soldiers executed more than 200 Greek Communist resistance fighters and political prisoners at the site, a former rifle range.

Scores of supporters joined him as he made the pointed gesture towards the country which is now one of Greece’s major creditors and an architect the fierce austerity policies enforced on its people.

The 40-year-old former communist party youth activist swept to victory overnight on a promise to renegotiate Greece’s €240billion (£179bn) international bailout deal.

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Symbolism: Alexis Tsipras lays flowers on the National Resistance Memorial in Athens, on the site where on May 1, 1944, 200 communist resistance fighters and political prisoners were executed by German soldiers 

Symbolism: Alexis Tsipras lays flowers on the National Resistance Memorial in Athens, on the site where on May 1, 1944, 200 communist resistance fighters and political prisoners were executed by German soldiers

Making history: Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece's far-left Syriza party is sworn in as prime minister, which at 40 years old, makes him the youngest leader for more than 150 years

Making history: Alexis Tsipras, the leader of Greece’s far-left Syriza party is sworn in as prime minister, which at 40 years old, makes him the youngest leader for more than 150 years

He has also pledged to reverse many of the reforms that EU creditors demanded in exchange for keeping Greece financially afloat since 2010.

That has placed the country on a collision course with Germany over its massive bailout deal, with Angela Merkel effectively saying the new Greek government can forget any kind of debt relief.

The win has been hailed by left and right-wing parties across Europe – led by Spain’s Podemos, which is vowing a similar general election win this year.

But Spain’s conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy warned austerity-weary voters against the temptation to back Podemos. ‘We cannot bet our future and that of our children in a frivolous game of Russian roulette,’ he said.

Tsipras, 40, was sworn in this afternoon, making him the youngest Greek Prime Minister for more than 150 years and the country’s first radical left-wing leader.

Breaking with tradition: Tsipras – characteristically without a tie – took a civil instead of a religious oath, pledging to ‘always serve the interests of the Greek people’

Alexis Tsipras  arrives for his swearing-in ceremony as Greece's first leftist prime minister at the presidential palace in Athens

Alexis Tsipras arrives for his swearing-in ceremony as Greece’s first leftist prime minister at the presidential palace in Athens

Wearing an open-necked shirt, the former Communist youth organiser also broke with tradition by taking a civil instead of a religious oath, pledging to ‘always serve the interests of the Greek people’.

Other groups from Britain and Ireland to France, Italy and Portugal also praised Syriza’s win as a reproach to the tough budget cuts imposed by their mainstream rivals in the recent economic crisis.

‘The Greeks are going to have a true Greek president, not a delegate of German Chancellor Angela Merkel,’ said Pablo Iglesias, leader of Podemos, which has topped several opinion polls and is aiming for an absolute majority in Spain’s election due in November.

Parties such as Podemos accuse Merkel and other European leaders of forcing hardship on citizens through spending cuts and tax hikes in the crisis, which saw unemployment soar.

News of Syriza’s win sent the euro plumetting to an 11-year low against the dollar, trading at $1.1088 in Tokyo in early morning trade, the lowest level since September 2003.

Victory salute: Newly elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras waves to journalists upon his arrival at the the Prime Minister's offices in Athens

Victory salute: Newly elected Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras waves to journalists upon his arrival at the the Prime Minister’s offices in Athens

The single currency has also tumbled against the pound, with sterling hitting a seven-year high of around €1.34.

Elsewhere, eurosceptic British party UKIP and France’s National Front, one of Europe’s most powerful far-right parties, hailed Syriza’s victory.

Jubilant: Syriza supporters celebrate victory in the Greek general election, in which the anti-austerity party triumphed over ruling conservatives

Jubilant: Syriza supporters celebrate victory in the Greek general election, in which the anti-austerity party triumphed over ruling conservatives

Emotional: Projections suggested Syriza was due to receive between 149 seats - just short of the 151 it would need for an overall majority

Emotional: Projections suggested Syriza was due to receive between 149 seats – just short of the 151 it would need for an overall majority

Syriza's supporters (pictured) were told the party will help Greece 'come out of a vicious circle of debt' by axing austerity measures

Syriza’s supporters (pictured) were told the party will help Greece ‘come out of a vicious circle of debt’ by axing austerity measures

'Our priority above all will be to restore the country's lost dignity,' Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, 40, told a rally of thousands of supporters

‘Our priority above all will be to restore the country’s lost dignity,’ Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, 40, told a rally of thousands of supporters

The radical left party leader, whose son is named after Che Guevara, promised to clash with 'old establishments' and the 'regime of corruption'

The radical left party leader, whose son is named after Che Guevara, promised to clash with ‘old establishments’ and the ‘regime of corruption’

Greek residents react to new anti-austerity government

UKIP leader Nigel Farage called it ‘a desperate cry for help from the Greek people, millions of whom have been impoverished by the euro experiment’.

French National Front leader Marine Le Pen called it ‘a monstrous democratic slap in the face by the Greek people to the European Union’.

Also in France, one of Syriza’s left-wing allies, Left Front leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, said: ‘The arrogant all-powerfulness of the economic liberals and their so-called miracle formulae to save the economy… have failed in Greece.’

He hoped that ‘by a domino effect Europe will be refounded and reorganised in a completely different way’.

Italy’s main eurosceptic parties hailed the Greek election result as an overdue signal that austerity policies were not working.

Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigrant Northern League, called it ‘a lovely big slap in the face for the Soviet Union of Europe and the euro of unemployment and the banks’.

Newly elected PM Alexis Tsipras is cheered at Syriza party HQ

Cheering: Syriza's supporters celebrated having an estimated 36 per cent of the vote, compared to the conservatives' 28 per cent

Cheering: Syriza’s supporters celebrated having an estimated 36 per cent of the vote, compared to the conservatives’ 28 per cent

The supporters were told: ‘Our priority from tomorrow will be to restore popular sovereignty in the country, to give justice, to clash with old establishments. To clash with the regime of corruption. To promote reforms in the state, public administration, everywhere’

Uncompromising: Greece has built up years of resentment to austerity and bailout measures imposed by the European Central Bank

Uncompromising: Greece has built up years of resentment to austerity and bailout measures imposed by the European Central Bank

Jubilant: Syriza supporters waved everything from rainbow flags to those bearing Communist symbolism as they heard of their victory

Jubilant: Syriza supporters waved everything from rainbow flags to those bearing Communist symbolism as they heard of their victory

Emotional: After being crippled by debt, Greece has undergone enforced austerity with a youth unemployment rate of 50 per cent

Emotional: After being crippled by debt, Greece has undergone enforced austerity with a youth unemployment rate of 50 per cent

The euro has been falling in value against the pound and the dollar for more than a year, and there are fears about the impact of Syriza's election victory in Greece on the stability of the eurozone

The euro has been falling in value against the pound and the dollar for more than a year, and there are fears about the impact of Syriza’s election victory in Greece on the stability of the eurozone