By Jethro Mullen and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Now that his party has apparently won the support of his country’s voters, Alexis Tsipras has another fight in front of him: making good on his campaign promise to renegotiate the terms of Greece’s bailout.
“We are regaining our lost dignity … Now that we are heard by all of Europe, we will fight with the same passion, the same confidence,” Tsipras told cheering supporters. “So let’s go and let’s all continue this beautiful and tough fight.”
With more than 70% of votes counted, Syriza was officially projected to win at least 149 seats in the 300-seat Parliament.
Exit polls also placed the party in the lead. But analysts cautioned that it was still too close to call whether Syriza would win a majority of seats — a key step that would allow the party to govern without forming a coalition government.
Tsipras, 40, who could become Greece’s next prime minister, also vowed to end austerity measures.
“Greece leaves behind the austerity that ruined it, leaves behind the fear, leaves behind five years of humiliation, and Greece moves forward with optimism and hope and dignity,” he told the crowd.
Syriza’s pledges to try to get some of Greece’s colossal debt written off and roll back unpopular austerity measures appealed to exasperated members of the electorate — even if they potentially jeopardize Greece’s place in the eurozone. The election could lead to a dramatic showdown with the debt-laden nation’s lenders.
“That is a gamble that people in Greece seem to be prepared to take at this point, simply because the terms of its bailout have been so severe,” Greek journalist Elinda Labropoulou told CNN on Sunday.
One of those people willing to take the risk is Eleni Antoniou, a former public sector employee.
“People went bankrupt since we entered the bailout, poverty is visible across society, and I believe that hope is coming with Syriza’s program, not only for Greece, but for all of Europe,” she said ahead of the election.
Outgoing prime minister: My conscience is clear
The austerity imposed by Greece’s international creditors has cut deep. Unemployment has soared to 28%, and many people who still have jobs have seen drastic decreases in wages, pensions frozen and the retirement age pushed back.
The governing New Democracy party had pointed to recent improvements in economic indicators as signs things were getting better.
After conceding defeat Sunday, outgoing Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said his conscience was clear.
“I got a country on the verge of ruin. I was asked to try and save it, and I did it,” he said. “Most people did not believe we could stand strong, but we did.”
Now, he said, Greece is secure and “slowly walking away from the crisis.”
“And more than anything,” he said, “I give back a country that is a member of the European parliament and the euro.”
‘Not the future of austerity’
In his victory speech Sunday, Tsipras noted that Greece’s election could have an impact far beyond his country’s borders.
“Our victory is, at the same time, it’s a victory for all the people of Europe that are fighting against austerity that’s ruining the common European future,” he said.
His message is one that has resonated in other southern European countries under the restrictions of international bailouts.
Syriza’s victory could boost other populist parties, like Beppe Grillo’s anti-euro Five Star Movement in Italy and the Podemos Movement in Spain.
But it’s unclear how its plans to renegotiate the bailout would play out.
Is Alexis Tsipras man of the moment?
By Isa Soares, CNN
But for many on the streets of Athens it’s his words that matter — his promise of “No more bailouts, no more submission, no more blackmailing.”
It’s a message of hope that resonates with those across this country, hardened by years of the EU’s bitter medicine: Austerity.
Greece was among the nations hardest-hit by the global financial crisis; a deeply-troubled economy, widespread unemployment and civil unrest meant that back in 2010 the country was teetering on the brink of exit from the euro, labeled the sick man of Europe.
But the prescription handed down by the Troika — the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank — was always going to be difficult to swallow: tax hikes, a freeze on state pensions, bans on early retirement and deep cuts in government salaries, in return for a €240 billion bailout.
Five years on and the Greek economy is starting to recover. Last year, it came out of recession; this year the country’s GDP is expected to grow 0.7%.
But some fear the years spent locked in a straitjacket of debt and stagnation may have done more harm than good. There is widespread unemployment, with 27% of the population out of work, industrial production has shrunk 30% and three million people live on or below the poverty line.
For many here, austerity has only led to hardship, and caused unbearable strains that are visible on faces across the city.
Over instant coffee at his house on the outskirts of Athens, Nikos, 58, says his world has been turned upside down since losing his job in 2009. He has been unemployed ever since.
“I used to have money in my pocket, and now, I have nothing,” he explains. “I was supposed to get my pension next year and now that has been pushed back by two years. Just put yourself in my position.”
The initial frustration he felt has turned to anger. His pride has also been battered; to get by, he has had to ask his mother to share her pension — not easy for a man who had always been the breadwinner.
Now, he and his four grown-up sons depend on his wife Valentina. But her wages, which have been slashed by 55%, are not enough to feed everyone, leaving her with a tough decision: help the family or pay taxes.
“Who to help first? They are four. I don’t buy anything for myself so that I can help them. I had to pay €260 in taxes, and I only earn €800. So I haven’t paid the taxes and gave the money to my son to help him with his rent,” she explains.
The family’s desperation has only been exacerbated by their disenchantment with politicians and their policies: since 2005, Greece has had six Prime Ministers, each one vowing to bring an end to the crisis; each one promising jobs and growth.
But nothing, Nikos says, has changed. So, he and his wife are gambling on Greece’s left-wing Syriza party, their pledge to bring an end to austerity, and their message that “hope is coming”.
Angry and frustrated, Nikos insists: “Things can’t get any worse with a new government. And if they do, we’ll vote again for someone else.
“Have politicians ever asked an unemployed citizen when he wakes up in the morning and who has a family, if this person has a single euro, or €5, in his pocket to buy a carton of milk to feed his children?” he asks. “I don’t trust any of them.”
For now, Nikos and Valentina are placing their trust in Syriza and its leader Alexis Tsipras, who has promised to raise the minimum wage, re-hire public sector workers, reduce taxes and tackle the country’s “silent humanitarian crisis”.
But Tsipras’s boldest pledge — and the one that is making the rest of Europe nervous — is his promise to renegotiate the terms of the Greek bailout deal.
At Syriza’s last rally before Sunday’s general election, I asked the party’s finance spokesman George Stathakis what they will do if they can’t see eye-to-eye with Europe.
“What we are arguing [for] with our European partners is a new arrangement that will remove part of the public debt burden on the Greek economy and at the same time allow Greece to get back to work,” he says.
In other words, they want to stay in the single currency but with more fiscal leeway — a breathing space of sorts, so the country can recover from its “economic coma,” and begin to grow again.
Both working-class and middle-class voters — and both public and private sector workers — have voiced support for this call.
Computer developer Stathis Papachristou says he has always voted for the conservatives, but having seen his wages slashed and his taxes increase — and as the father of a newborn baby, he’s voting for change this time around.
“Syriza doesn’t express 100% my opinions and I’m not level with what they believe and what they want to do, but I believe its something new, a new party with fresh ideas that is going to change what is already rotten,” he explains.
There is no doubt that anger and austerity have fueled the rise of Syriza in a country whose citizens are calling for social and economic change.
But — if he is elected — the question of whether Tsipras can make a difference to Greece will depend on what he does with his power, and how the EU and its leaders deal with him.
Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s polls, the hard work, it seems, is just beginning.