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.