Handelsblatt: Eyes of Europe fixed on one person: Alexis Tsipras

“With elections just around the corner, Tsipras is playing with fire. He’s tempting his fellow countrymen by promising an end of abhorrent austerity, while jeopardizing the country’s position in the Europe at the very same time”

The German newspaper “Handelsblatt” published an extensive feature on Monday entitled “Worldwide dread over euro viability” regarding SYRIZA’s election prospects.

“With elections just around the corner, (SYRIZA leader Alexis) Tsipras is playing with fire. He’s tempting his fellow countrymen by promising an end to abhorrent austerity,  while jeopardizing the country’s position in the Europe at the very same time”.

Furthermore, the article attempts to decifer who Tsipras, the political leader, actually is and what is he is really after.

“The eyes of Europe are fixed on a single person, none other than Alexis Tsipras,” the German paper notes,  while describing how the SYRIZA leader has rekindled fears of a possible collapse of euro zone, a fear believed to have been overcome at least two years ago.

According to the newspaper, if Tsipras wins the election on Jan. 25, he will demand drastic negotiations and will terminate agreements made with Greece’s institutional creditors, known collectively as the troika.

Tsipras is viewed as an “icon of the Left across Europe, and at the same time feared by many experts,” the paper stressed.

“If creditors don’t extend billions worth of aid programs, the country will go bankrupt and will exit the eurozone … even for the Greeks themselves, the consequences are unpredictable,” Handesblatt writes.

On the other hand, the paper writes that “Alexis Tsipras knows very well how to attract voters”.

The leader of SYRIZA not only wants to end hated austerity, but also wants to allocate 11.4 billion euros for development policy to create thousands of new jobs, to reinstate the previous minimum wage and overturn (previous) cuts to pension and wage-earners.

Nevertheless, the paper notes that many voters will decide on how they vote shortly before they head to the ballot box.