Tsipras's last card

Alexis Tsipras started out like a rock star in the eyes of the European and American left. He was seen as being at the vanguard in the so-called battle against austerity.

Every time Tsipras set foot in Rome or Paris, he was welcomed with enthusiasm by young people and left-wing officials who saw him as a rival to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a representative of a "rupture" with the European status quo. It all culminated in Greece's bailout referendum in the summer of 2015.

Then came the "kolotoumba."

Tsipras does not really reverberate with the radical folk anymore. In fact, that section of the electorate appears to have found a new rock star in the face of Yanis Varoufakis, Tsipras's former finance minister and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25. In the minds of these people, Tsipras is a leader who made compromises.