After his left-wing Syriza party won a decisive victory in national elections on Sunday, Alexis Tsipras, right, met with Panos Kammenos, the leader of the Independent Greeks, on Monday as part of an effort to form a coalition government. Credit Lefteris Pitarakis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
ATHENS — Alexis Tsipras, the leftist political maverick who swept to power on Sunday in Greece in a popular rebellion, formed a new coalition government on Monday with a right-wing fringe party that will charge immediately into the task of reversing wrenching austerity policies and negotiating with European leaders to reduce Greece’s debt burden.
Panos Kammenos, the leader of the coalition partner, Independent Greeks, told reporters shortly after meeting with Mr. Tsipras on Monday morning that the two had formed a new government. The Independent Greeks, who won 4.7 percent of the national vote, have often taken a hard line against austerity and might push for tough terms in any debt talks.
It was not immediately clear how the power would be shared, but Mr. Tsipras planned to go to the Greek presidential compound in the early afternoon to formally receive the mandate to form a government.
“I want to announce that from this moment the country has a government,†Mr. Kammenos told reporters after about an hour of talks with Mr. Tsipras.
“The Independent Greeks give our vote of confidence to the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras,†he said.
Mr. Kammenos added that Mr. Tsipras would visit President Karolos Papoulias later on Monday to be sworn in as prime minister and then announce the composition of the new Greek government “in which Independent Greeks will participate.â€
European finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday were expected to put the developments in Greece high on their agenda. Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, told a German radio station on Monday morning that he had congratulated Mr. Tsipras immediately after the election but had told him that Greece should not expect significant financial concessions from creditors.
Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain was more blunt. “The Greek election will increase economic uncertainty across Europe,†he said on Twitter.
With nearly all the votes counted, Mr. Tsipras’s Syriza party had won 36.3 percent of votes and secured 149 seats in the Greek Parliament, short of the 151 that he needed to secure an outright majority.
New Democracy, led by the defeated incumbent prime minister, Antonis Samaras, took 27.8 percent of the votes. The neo-facist Golden Dawn party, whose popularity has increased amid economic hardship, won 6.3 percent of votes, coming in third.
Syriza has become the first anti-austerity party to take power in a eurozone country and to shatter the two-party establishment that has dominated Greek politics for four decades.
Mr. Tsipras’s victory represented a rejection of the harsh economics of austerity. It also sent a warning to the rest of Europe, where continuing economic weakness has stirred a populist backlash, with more voters growing fed up with policies that have required sacrifices to meet the demands of creditors but have failed to deliver more jobs and prosperity.
Now that he has formed a coalition, Mr. Tspiras must quickly determine which of his populist promises he can carry out quickly, setting up a likely showdown with Greece’s European partners. Mr. Tsipras has said he wants to negotiate directly with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and other European leaders to reduce Greece’s debt burden.
Some officials, however, have characterized Mr. Tsipras’s demands as unrealistic and rife with the potential to drive Greece toward default or even out of the eurozone, the group that shares the currency.
Officials in Germany reacted swiftly, warning Greeks against abandoning their course of overhauls.
“The Greeks have the right to elect whoever they want; we have the right to no longer finance Greek debt,†Hans-Peter Friedrich, a senior member of Ms. Merkel’s conservative bloc, told the daily newspaper Bild on Monday. “The Greeks must now pay the consequences and cannot saddle German taxpayers with them.â€
Appearing before a throng of supporters outside Athens University late Sunday, Mr. Tsipras, 40, declared that the era of austerity was over and promised to revive the economy. He also said his government would not allow Greece’s creditors to strangle the country.
“Democracy will return to Greece,†Mr. Tsipras said to a swarm of journalists as he cast his ballot in Athens. “The message is that our common future in Europe is not the future of austerity.â€
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