Alexis Tsipras sworn in as Greek prime minister after election win

ATHENS Alexis Tsipras was sworn in for the second time as the prime minister of Greece Monday after winning a snap election he called to renew his SYRIZA party’s mandate as the country prepares to implement tough reforms as part of its bailout plan.

Having fallen short of an outright parliamentary majority, Tsipras has said he plans to form a government with former junior coalition partner, the Independent Greeks.

A breakaway anti-austerity faction of SYRIZA that formed its own party failed to secure any seats in Parliament in Sunday’s elections.

The remaining part of SYRIZA the leftist party that gained power for the first time in January on Tsipras’ promise of battling fiscal belt-tightening required by previous bailouts would be responsible for ensuring a third bailout Tsipras agreed to after cliffhanger negotiations that threatened to see Greece tip out of the eurozone.

While warning that there would be no “magic solution” that would allow Greece to emerge from its economic crisis quickly, Tsipras promised in his victory speech that he would overturn entrenched politics and support long-struggling Greeks.

The polling, in which SYRIZA garnered 35.5 percent of the votes compared with the conservative New Democracy’s 28, had the lowest turnout in modern Greek history with less than 57 percent of the electorate casting a ballot.

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