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World / Europe

Reluctant reformer Tsipras keen to make Balkans history with Macedonia deal

Published: 13 Jan 2019 - 08:33 pm | Last Updated: 02 Nov 2021 - 02:34 pm
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the European Union summit to discuss the ongoing refugee in Brussels on March 17, 2016. AFP/ John Thys

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the European Union summit to discuss the ongoing refugee in Brussels on March 17, 2016. AFP/ John Thys

AFP

Athens:  Introducing himself to the European stage as an anti-austerity firebrand four years ago, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras swiftly managed to morph into a fiscal reformer and win over sceptical creditors and EU leaders.

After leading his country back from the brink of bankruptcy, he now stands to leave his mark on Balkan history too by helping solve a 27-year name row with neighbouring Macedonia -- even if it brings down his coalition government in the process.

For Greece's youngest prime minister in 150 years -- and the first avowed atheist -- negotiating in times of crisis has almost become second nature.

A former Communist and student leader, his rise through the ranks of the leftist Syriza party was swift -- secretary of the party's youth wing at 25, Athens mayoral candidate at 32, party chief at 33, parliament lawmaker at 35.

Believing that he could persuade Greece's creditors to loosen the country's austerity straitjacket, Tsipras wasted no time in facing them down upon taking office in 2015.

But his erratic negotiating tactics -- and posturing by his maverick first finance minister Yanis Varoufakis -- often infuriated his European peers, who accused him of gambling the country's future by engaging in irresponsible brinkmanship.

It took the steady hand of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's former president Francois Hollande to persuade Tsipras to change course and sign on to more reforms before Greece was pushed out of the euro.

Among those who drastically revised their views on Tsipras is EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

The Frenchman told Le Figaro newspaper last year that he was "alarmed" when Tsipras stormed to power in 2015, a radical pledging to rip up Greece's multi-billion bailout deals.

But he soon discovered a "bright, agile and brave person who managed to turn his people around" while transforming himself into a "responsible" leftist, said Moscovici.

Criticism from left

An engineer by training, Tsipras was born in the suburbs of Athens in 1974, the year a seven-year army dictatorship that mercilessly persecuted leftists collapsed.

He has two boys with electronics engineer Betty Baziana, whom he met in high school. They have never married, despite the country's strong conservative traditions.

A lifelong fan of Che Guevara, Tsipras has named his youngest son Orfeas Ernesto after the Argentine revolutionary.

But Tsipras's actions since taking office have harmed his far-left radical credentials and his former French ally, far-left former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, has been scathing.

"Tsipras is one of the most pathetic figures on the European political scene," the populist French leftwing leader said over the summer.

Other EU leaders do not agree, who have backed Tsipras to deliver on his end of a historic name changing deal with Macedonia.

Merkel, who was visiting Greece on Thursday, said she was "grateful" to Tsipras for brokering the deal over strong opposition in both countries.

The agreement "will benefit North Macedonia, Greece and the European Union. I strongly believe that," she said according to the official translation.

Legacies

Macedonian lawmakers voted on Friday to rename their country the Republic of North Macedonia, fulfilling the terms of an agreement signed between Tsipras and his Macedonia counterpart Zoran Zaev in June last year.

The deal aims to end a bitter row that began in 1991 with the independence of Macedonia, which took the name of the history-rich northern Greek region that lies just across the border.

Tsipras promised to lift Athens' veto on Skopje's attempts to join NATO and the European Union as long as the Macedonian parliament agreed to the name change.

In an interview last week, Tsipras said he saw the Macedonia deal as one of his "greatest legacies" as premier, second only to leading Greece out of the bailout era.

Yet the name change deal threatens Tsipras' hold on power. On Sunday he was forced to call for a confidence vote in parliament after Defence Minister Panos Kammenos resigned over the Macedonia name vote.

With a weakened government and talk of a snap election, there is speculation that polls planned for October could be brought forward to May or even earlier.