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http://blogs.wsj.com/eurocrisis/2012/05/03/greek-leftist-comes-into-his-own/?KEYWORDS=Alexis+Tsipras

• May 3, 2012, 12:23 PM EST

Greek Leftist Comes Into His Own

EPA

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.”

Mr. Tsipras advocates the annulment of Greece’s second bailout program with the fiscal-consolidation and structural-reform policies attached to it.

In a recent interview with a Greek website, Mr. Tsipras said the country was becoming a “protectorate, a colony” under the tough measures that Greece’s troika of creditors–the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund–demand to continue funding the country’s bailout.

While he has said he’s not necessarily advocating leaving the euro and returning to Greece’s old currency, the drachma, his rhetoric on the future of Greece within the currency bloc has been ambiguous.

“It is not our choice to leave the euro. But the sacrifices made by the Greek people are not for the euro, they are for oligarchs, the plutocrats, the big capital,” he said in the interview, adding that these sacrifices were made so that “[German Chancellor Angela] Mrs. Merkel and the northern countries benefit and run surpluses and the southerners run deficits.”

In the notoriously fragmented left end of Greece’s political spectrum, Tsipras is the only leader who has openly called on other left-wing parties to cooperate with him ahead of the polls in the hope of forming a majority government. His invitation has fallen on deaf ears, but boosted his image as a leader and potential powerbroker.

Nikolakopoulos thinks that if Syriza manages to get around 12% and position itself as the third party in the uncertain political scene after the May 6 election, Tsipras will live up to the challenge.

“When the crisis hits the other parties, including PASOK, New Democracy and the Communist Party, he [Tsipras] will have a position of power, especially if he convincingly gets third place. Then he becomes a serious player,” says Nikolakopoulos. “He has the stomach for it.”

Tsipras could well find himself leading the main opposition party after the elections, if Pasok and New Democracy form a coalition government. If Syriza does get around 12%, a realistic prospect according to Nikolakopoulos, that would translate to roughly 30 deputies in a highly-fragmented, 300-seat parliament. That would put the young party leader in a strong position to continue spreading his anti-austerity message.