However, despite Syriza’s inability to stop further austerity, with 70 percent of the votes counted Syriza had over a third of the national vote, giving them 145 out of 300 seats in Parliament – a result only four seats lower than their thumping triumph in January.
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However, the decision led to a split within Syriza, with rebels breaking off to form the new Popular Unity party, which advocates withdrawal from the Eurozone and failed to win any parliamentary seats in Sunday’s election.
“Tsipras will fight for the people – for Greece and for Europe”, said Maria Nixa, a 58-year-old private company employee celebrating outside Syriza’s main election campaign booth in central Athens.
“We have difficulties ahead, but we are also on firm ground”. “We won’t recover from the struggle by magic, but it can happen with hard work”, he added.
Tsipras said he would form a government with his previous coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks of Panos Kammenos, who joined him on stage to rapturous applause from dancing, cheering supporters in Athens.
Tsipras invited Kammenos in front of an audience amid his triumph discourse, telling the gathering of people “Together we will proceed with the battle we started seven months prior.” According to polls, 40 percent of registered voters between 18 and 26 voted for Syriza.
European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday congratulated Alexis Tsipras on his left-wing party’s re-election victory and said Greece has “no time to lose” in implementing the reforms agreed as part of its bailout.
Tsipras was voted into office in January promising to halt austerity measures imposed by Europe, which most Greeks blame for worsening one of the deepest depressions of any industrialised country in modern times.
According to the latest figures, Syriza has got 35 percent votes while New Democracy has got 28 percent.
However, major parties such as the Golden Dawn and the communist KKE party, in the new parliament have accepted the cash-for-reforms deal to keep Greece in the euro zone.
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It is a decisive victory, as opinion polls conducted on Friday had put Mr Tsipras and Vangelis Meimarakis, his conservative rival, just half a percentage point apart.
