The leftist, anti-austerity Syriza Party has swept to victory in Greece. Syriza won 149 seats in the 300-seat parliament, two short of an absolute majority. This marks the first time since the economic crisis in 2009 that a member of the 19-nation euro zone will be led by a party rejecting German-backed austerity. The head of Syriza, Alexis Tsipras, will become Greek’s new Prime Minister.
Alexis Tsipras: “Greece is turning a page, Greece is leaving behind catastrophic austerity, it is leaving behind the fear and the autocracy, it is leaving behind five years of humiliation and pain … Today there are no winners and losers, today Greece’s elite and Greece’s oligarchs were defeated … Our victory is also a victory for all the people of Europe who are fighting against austerity that is destroying our common European future.”
Dimitris Karamanis, Greek voter: “I think that Syriza is the only alternative at this time in Greece and of course Syriza’s proposals are the only alternatives in Europe concerning the issues about the debt, about the crisis and all that stuff. Of course I’m voting for Syriza because it is the only alternative for my generation.”
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