Ex-protester becomes PM-in-waiting

Alexis Tsipras, who is tipped to be Greece's youngest prime minister since 1865, has come a long way from his early days as a Communist youth activist.

The 40-year-old leader of Syriza first came to the public's attention in 1990 when, as a 17-year-old representing a school sit-in, he told a TV interviewer, "We want the right to judge for ourselves whether to skip class."

Tsipras was born in 1974, a fateful year for Greece. It marked the collapse of a seven-year army dictatorship that mercilessly persecuted leftists, and culminated in a bloody crackdown against a student uprising.

Once a brash youth activist who enjoyed riding motorbikes and abhorred ties, the father of two has modified his image as power and responsibility beckoned.

The nerdy glasses went long ago, the trademark Tintin-style crest of hair has been flattened, and, in the latest step toward premiership, Tsipras is now writing articles in German and Italian newspapers, making references to Greece's fiscal waterboarding by its EU-IMF creditors.

Taking steps to improve his command of English, he has also sought to boost his international standing through meetings with Pope Francis, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and even German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble - a man whose preoccupation with fiscal discipline he had often attacked, and is likely to continue to do so.

Tsipras faced his first crisis in 2008, when Athens and other cities were vandalized by youths protesting against the fatal shooting of a teenage boy by a policeman.

Syriza gave political backing to the rioters and in the next election, the party was punished with just 4.6 percent of the vote.

"(We) were the only political power to defend the right and causes of this uprising, and we paid for it," Tsipras later wrote.

(China Daily 01/24/2015 page12)