Greek election: Alexis Tsipras defied polls but widespread malaise remains

The charismatic Greek leader Alexis Tsipras has once more managed to defy both the pollsters and the pundits by winning a decisive victory in Sunday's general elections, his left-wing Syriza party taking about 35 per cent of the vote compared to 28 per cent for the closest challenger.  

So many times has his political demise been predicted, only to be proven false, that you could start calling Tsipras the comeback kid. 

In fact, he hasn't actually gone anywhere since he first swept to power in January on a promise to end European Union-imposed austerity measures. Over the past eight months, his has been a constant, lightning-rod presence on what has been a rough-and-tumble political stage for the Greeks from Athens to Berlin and Brussels. 

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"Today in Europe, Greece and the Greek people are synonymous with resistance and dignity," Tsipras told supporters at a victory rally in Athens. 

"This struggle will be continued together for a full four years, because the mandate we got is a four-year mandate." 

The quandary of Tsipras's enigmatic appeal lies right there in the contradictions contained in that message. 

He is implying that he will continue to resist EU austerity measures, and so restore pride to the Greek people, even though he called the snap election in August in the first place to deal with rebel MPs in his own party unhappy because he had agreed to austerity measures.  

Adding injury to insult, he had done so after 62 per cent of voters rejected bailout terms insisting on austerity in a national referendum that Tsipras had himself called.

Another big gamble

That was another great gamble. Tsipras played chicken with Greece's EU creditors and won the battle of the referendum, but not the war.  

He wound up accepting even harsher terms than had been on the table before the vote he'd called, giving people just a week to decide. 

The slap was felt not just by members of his own party, but by people who voted No to the bailout terms.  

"Is that democracy?" a young waitress named Maria Markouizou asked me in Athens last week. "I don't think so."  

I'd first met Markouizou in July before the referendum when she was preparing to vote No. It was the first time she'd cast a ballot for anything. 

After Tsipras's about face, she didn't go out and vote against him in this election. She simply didn't vote. For her, that's the end of her political engagement.

"Whatever the new government is, they're just going to follow the instructions of the European Union or the Germany government," she said.  

That sense of malaise is clearly widespread if you take the voter turnout — at around 56 per cent — into consideration. 

Rebel and establishment leader

Tsipras, of course, says he was forced to accept the bailout terms in the end or preside over a Greek exit from the single European currency, something most Greeks do not want.  

That allows him to present two images at once: The rebel still fighting the inhuman demands from Brussels and the establishment leader capable of implementing those same inhuman demands for the ultimate good of the country.  

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Despite his win, Tsipras still managed to lose 300,000 votes between January and September. But there's also no doubt he remains the most popular figure on the Greek political stage today, perhaps because he represents a break from the past.  

"Everyone, including myself, voted for Syriza because there was no one else to vote for," one 49-year-old woman told news agencies today.  

"We have tried all the others already … the people gave [Tsipras] another chance, let's see what he will do from now on." 

Whatever it is, it's not likely to be boring.