Who Is Who: SYRIZA Leader Alexis Tsipras in Brief

Alexis Tsipras, the 40-year-old leader of radical left SYRIZA, is now making headlines around the world as his party is becoming Greece's largest electoral force. 

Tsipras's activity has fueled much speculation over the past few years, ranging between "the man who could save Europe" and "the man who could bring Europe to its collapse".

But even though he has been in the political spotlight for just a little time if compared to former PM George Papandreou or current socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, the "dinosaurs" representing decades-old political dynasties, his radical activism dates 24 years back, when he spearheaded a student protest in the 1990s. As a communist leader, he managed to build up reputation both locally and (later) nationally.

At the age of 25 Tsipras, who had been born into a middle-class family unrelated to politics, was elected Secretary of the leftist political party Synaspismos, the predecessor of SYRIZA from which the Coalition of the Radical Left in split nearly a decade. Tsipras made it into the leadership structures of Synapsismos in just four years, and it took him another seven years to become the European Left's deputy chair. Last year he headed the European Left's election ticket in the EP elections in May, thus being a de-facto contender to head the EU Commission. 

In 2008, he headed SYRIZA, thus becoming the youngest political leader (only at 33) in Greece's history.

Tsipras rose to popularity earlier in the 2010s, when Greece was already two years into the era of austerity. Back then he fervently rejected the severe conditions imposed on the country in return for the BGN 240 B loan secured in an agreement with the international lenders.

His SYRIZA party, literally Coalition of the Radical...