A new day dawns for Greece following the Greek elections on Sunday that gave the main opposition Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) the mandate to govern. The clear win for the leftist anti-austerity party received a mixed reception from the international press with newspapers such as the Guardian, Liberation, the Financial Times, Il Manifesto and others giving the party front-page treatment with most of the focus cast on its 40-year-old leader Alexis Tsipras

The Times referred to the shockwaves that were sent through Europe as the party that refuses to take orders from Berlin and Brussels has triumphed. Mr. Tsipras is described as a “firebrand” and his party is described as the “first of a new wave of anti-cutback parties”. The article points to a threat to boost similar parties that are rattling financial markets elsewhere in Europe.

The Daily Telegraph’s article “Greek drama engulfs the euro” points to Greece setting itself on a collision course with the rest of Europe with SYRIZA at the helm. The newspaper claims that the election results are a “resounding rebuff to the country’s lost of financial sovereignty”.

The Guardian states that the result surpassed pollster predictions and marginalized the two mainstream parties that have run the country since the military junta’s fall in 1974. The article states that though the charismatic young SYRIZA leader’s victory was widely predicted it was nonetheless stunning in scale and impact. “The damning popular verdict on Europe’s response to financial meltdown is a haunting outcome for the EU’s political elite. For the first time, power has been handed to populist outsiders deeply opposed to Brussels and Berlin, albeit not anti-European, unlike their counterparts on the far right across the EU. For the first time a child of the European crisis, an explicitly anti-austerity party, will take office in the EU.”

The Financial Times points to the intense pressure that the next Greek leader will be under from Greece’s EU and International Monetary Fund creditors to abide by reform commitments of previous Greek governments in return for more assistance. “In what was Greece’s third general election since May 2012, voters turned to Syriza in frustration at mainstream centre-left, centre-right and technocratic governments that presided over a six-year economic slump. A quarter of the workforce is unemployed, average pensions have fallen by 40 per cent in value and hundreds of thousands of Greece’s 11m people are on the breadline.”

Metro points to a stunning win that caused the value of the euro to plunge as Asian markets opened to business and traders fearing that Greece will refuse to pay back billions causing a “domino effect” with voters in other indebted European countries rejecting austerity.

The International New York Times points to an enormous “to-do list” for Greece’s next government. “It must consolidate reforms, keep running balanced budgets, strengthen weak growth after a six-year recession, conclude the frozen bailout assessment talks to secure the above-mentioned loan tranche and negotiate further relief for its bloated, 320-billion-euro ($359-billion) debt.” The article states that many voters don’t believe that a SYRIZA government would be able to fulfill its campaign promises. A number of voters opted for SYRIZA to punish the conservative-socialist factions for the hardships Greek people believe have been “unnecessarily inflicted on them.”

The Berlusconi-family owned Il Giornale warns that communists are in the Greek government and that people should beware. “Europe fears for the euro, but it itself to blame,” states the newspaper and points to serious consequences if SYRIZA’s hopes are quashed. It tells bureaucrats to learn a lesson from Greece so that they can see what happens as a result of extreme austerity.

Leftist Il Manifesto merely writes “Legendary” and features a photo of Alexis Tsipras with his fist clenched tight

Liberation characterizes the SYRIZA leader as “Europe’s new political face”. The French newspaper, which on many occasions has supported that SYRIZA of 2015 is completely different from the SYRIZA of 2011, and is now is a centrist party, writes that “the great victory of Alexis Tsipras and SYRIZA creates new prospects for Greece and gives hope of a different approach of austerity policies in Europe.”