ATHENS, Greece — Tieless and eschewing the traditional religious swearing-in ceremony, but with a surprise coalition deal in the bag and a sanguine international reception, radical left leader Alexis Tsipras took over Monday as austerity-wracked Greece’s new prime minister.
Hours earlier, the 40-year-old’s Syriza party trounced the outgoing, conservative government in Sunday’s national elections, on a platform of easing social pain and securing massive debt forgiveness.
Although Syriza fell tantalizingly short of a governing majority in the 300-seat parliament, Tsipras moved quickly Monday to secure the support of 13 lawmakers from the small, right-wing populist Independent Greeks party, raising his total to 162.
“”We have the required majority,” Tsipras told Greek President Karolos Papoulias, shortly before being sworn in as prime minister, the youngest Greece has seen in 150 years and the first incumbent to take a secular oath rather than the religious one customarily administered by a Greek Orthodox official.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutchman who chairs eurozone finance ministers’ meetings, said that even though “there is very little support for debt write-offs,” there is room to “come back to debt sustainability issues” in the future— if necessary.
His views were echoed by the prime minister of Finland, a country that has long been among the most unmovable on austerity issues. Alexander Stubb said that even if he opposes forgiving Greece’s debts outright, he would be prepared to discuss extending loan repayments.
The alliance between Syriza and the Independent Greeks — two ideologically opposed parties who share only their opposition to the bailout — boosted stock markets across Europe that had fallen on news of the uncertain election results and fear of a second election. After a topsy-turvy session in Athens, stocks closed 3.2 percent down.
Syriza won 36.3 percent of the vote in Sunday’s early general elections.
