Leftist SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras was sworn-in before President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Monday, a day after his party won decisive and much easier than expected election victory.

Tsipras, as he did in January, took a civil oath, instead of the customary religious oath administered by the head of the Autocephalus Orthodox Church of Greece.

Earlier, the 41-year-old leftist leader was given a mandate to form a government, which he is expected to achieve with the addition of the rightist-populist — and previously anti-memorandum — Independent Greeks’ (AN.EL) party. The usual process, namely, issuing an “exploratory mandate”, was bypassed, given that Tsipras has come to an understanding with AN.EL leader Panos Kammenos. The latter was his coalition partner in the previous seven-month government.

“It was a campaign battle that was conducted under conditions of (heightened) political culture. The Greek people were given the opportunity to make their conclusions,” Tsipras told Pavlopoulos.

Walking across the street to the Maximos Mansion government house after his swearing-in as prime minister, for a second time in 2015, he was received by the caretaker prime minister, Vassiliki Thanou.

“I believe our country can come out of the difficult situation of the last five years and this is our commitment: to do everything in our power for the country and its people to exit this difficult situation and to make it strong again, an equal partner in the European Union and its people proud and dignified,”