Firebrand with history of agitation

Young, brash and tie-less, former communist Alexis Tsipras has emerged from the shadow of austerity in Greece to become the country’s first radical left-wing prime minister.

A civil engineer by background, top of his to-do list is engineering a solution to Greece’s economic crisis, which has left the country with debts running into the hundreds of billions following EU bailouts and years of recession.

The 40-year-old Syriza leader has developed an image as a tie-hating Che Guevara fan (one of his sons has the middle name Ernesto in tribute to the famous revolutionary), and the focal point of popular opposition to the conditions of the EU bailouts and unemployment levels that mean more than a quarter of Greeks are still out of work.

He took power in the weekend’s snap election called by the government of conservative Antonis Samaras, with a pledge to renegotiate Greece’s €240bn international bailout deal, and reverse many of the reforms that creditors demanded in exchange for keeping Greece financially afloat since 2010.

The father-of-two has had something of a meteoric rise to power. He has only been an MP in his home city of Athens since 2009 having failed to be elected as its mayor in 2006.

He had been leader of the opposition since he was re-elected in 2012. However, he has been involved in far left-wing politics since he was at school, with a record of activism that included organising a sit-in at the age of 17.

Tsipras rose through the ranks of the radical left-wing Synaspismos coalition party, becoming president in 2004.

After his election to the Greek parliament in 2009 he became chairman of Syriza, also called The Coalition Of The Radical Left, which includes Synaspismos.

Three years later, following another election, he became the official leader of the opposition.

Syriza was one of the “protest” parties that took a swathe of seats at the European elections last May, taking 26% of the vote.

However, at the time Tsipras said that the party was “a pro-European force that wants to change Europe, not dismantle it”, branding right-wing parties like Ukip and the French Front National as “monstrosities”.