THE EURO-GCC Trade & Investment Guide 2017
Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras
Alexis Tsipras is the 185th and current Prime Minister of Greece, having been sworn in on 21 September 2015. He previously served as the 183rd Prime Minister of Greece from 26 January 2015 to 27 August 2015. Tsipras has been leader of the left-wing Greek political party Syriza since 4 October 2009. Tsipras was born in Athens in 1974. He joined the Communist Youth of Greece in the late 1980s and in the 1990s was politically active in student protests against education reform plans, becoming the movement’s spokesperson. He studied civil engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, graduating in 2000, and later undertook post-graduate studies in urban and regional planning. He worked as a civil engineer in the construction industry, based primarily in Athens. From 1999 to 2003, Tsipras served as the secretary of Synaspismos Youth. He was elected as a member of the Central Committee of Synaspismos in 2004, and later the Political Secretariat. In the 2006 local election, he ran as Syriza’s candidate for Mayor of Athens, winning 10.5%. In 2008, he was elected as leader of Syriza, succeeding Alekos Alavanos.
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He was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament representing Athens A in the 2009 election, and was re-elected in May and June 2012, subsequently becoming Leader of the Opposition and appointing his own shadow cabinet. In January 2015, Tsipras led Syriza to victory in a snap legislative election, winning 149 out of 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament and forming a coalition with the Independent Greeks. 20 August 2015, seven months into his term as Prime Minister he lost his majority after intraparty defections, Tsipras announced his resignation, and called for a snap election, to take place the following month. In the September 2015 election that followed, Tsipras led Syriza to another victory, winning 145 out of 300 seats and re-forming the coalition with the Independent Greeks. As Prime Minister, he has overseen negotiations regarding the Greek government-debt crisis, initiated the Greek bailout referendum and responded to the European migrant crisis. In 2015 he was voted by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people globally.