Merkel: Syriza leader will do business

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is convinced Greek opposition leader Alexis Tsipras will do business with other euro-region governments if he wins next week’s election and scale back his demands that put him on a collision course with creditors, German government officials said.

With polls showing Tsipras’s Syriza alliance holding its lead before the January 25 election, Merkel views him as the kind of politician who would become more pragmatic once he’s in power, one official said.

Scope for easing the terms on bailout loans awarded to Greece starting in 2010 is limited by a 2012 EU accord, restricting the room for manoeuvre of any Tsipras-led government, said another official.