Greeks give Tsipras a clear victory

“A mandate to continue to battle inside and outside for this country.” This is how Alexis Trispras understands the victory his party had in Sunday’s Greek national elections.

The leftist party won the second general election in only nine months, with a lower turnout than usual according to Greek standards. Only 55% voted, in January’s election the turnout was 62%

Syriza had a better result than expected, after his government accepted the austerity plan of the EU. The Prime Minister had 35% of votes, which will give his party a comfortable majority.

“This mandate is a victory of the people, we fought a difficult and hard battle and I feel today that I was proven right because the Greek people gave us a clear mandate, to continue to battle inside and outside for this country”, Tsipras said. He was joined on stage by Panos Kammenos, leader of the the nationalist Independent Greeks, who will probably join Syriza in a government coalition.

Conservative New Democracy came second with 28% of votes, and far-right Golden Dawn came third with 7%.

Some of Tsipras' former government MP's defected in protest at the signing of an unpopular new financial bailout deal with international creditors and formed the Popular Unity party. But the new party has failed to gain enough votes to enter parliament.