Wall Street Journal
May 3, 2012
Young and charismatic, Alexis Tsipras may be the man to watch on the Greek political scene.
The 37-year-old, who’s an engineer by training, heads the Coalition of the Radical Left — or Syriza — an umbrella left-wing party that brings together various leftist strands ranging from Communist to Social-democrat and environmentalist groups.
His party has seen its polling figures rise in recent weeks, ahead of the May 6 elections. The last polls—before a two week blackout period imposed ahead of Sunday’s vote–showed Syriza poised to become the third largest party for the first time in its history, garnering on average above 10% of the popular vote. If this materializes on Sunday, it will be a significant boost from the party’s showing in the 2009 elections when it was fifth party with 4.6%.
“In recent years, he’s come into his own,” says Ilias Nikolakopoulos, a professor of political science at the University of Athens. “He has matured, he has developed a more concrete rhetoric, despite at times seeming to be proposing things outside a realistic framework.”
More
No comments:
Post a Comment