Alexis Tsipras

His maternal grandparents were from the village of Babaeski, Eastern Thrace, Turkey and moved to Eleftheroupoli as a result of the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

Alexis Tsipras (Αλέξης Τσίπρας, ; born 28 July 1974) is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019.

Tsipras was born in Athens in 1974.

Alexios (Alexis) Tsipras was born 28 July 1974 in Athens.

His father, Pavlos, was from Athamania in Epirus and was a well-off public works contractor, while his mother, Aristi, was born in Eleftheroupoli, a town in Greek Macedonia.

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.

Tsipras joined the Communist Youth of Greece in the late 1980s.

In the early 1990s, as a student at Ampelokipoi Multi-disciplinary High School, he was politically active in the student uprising and the school occupations against the controversial law of Education Minister Vasilis Kontogiannopoulos.

He rose to prominence as a representative of the student movement when he was featured as a guest on a television show hosted by journalist Anna Panagiotarea.

During the interview, Panagiotarea implied that Tsipras was being disingenuous in defending middle and high school students' right to absenteeism without parental notification in the context of protests.

Newspapers and opposition politicians contrasted his early activism for the free state education to his choice to enroll his children in private schools when he became prime-minister.

After the departure of the Communist Party of Greece from Synaspismos in 1991, Tsipras remained in the coalition.

From 1995 to 1997 he was an elected member of the Central Council of the National Students Union of Greece (EFEE).

From 1999 to 2003, Tsipras served as the secretary of Synaspismos Youth.

In May 1999 he became the first political secretary of Synaspismos' youth-wing, the Synaspismos Youth.

During this period he was described as a centrist, different from the very clear radical, left-wing profile he would later maintain as leader of Synaspismos.

He won many awards during this time.

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.

Tsipras studied civil engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, graduating in 2000, before undertaking postgraduate studies in Urban and Regional Planning following an inter-departmental MPhil at the School of Architecture of NTUA.

Alongside his postgraduate studies, he began working as a civil engineer in the construction industry.

He wrote three studies and projects on the theme of the city of Athens.

As a university student, Tsipras joined the ranks of the renascent left-wing movement, particularly the "Enceladus" (Εγκέλαδος) group, and as member of it, he was elected to the executive board of the students' union of the Civil Engineering School of NTUA and also served as student representative on the University Senate.

In November 2003, he was succeeded by Tasos Koronakis and moved on to the mother party.

He managed quite efficiently to maintain a strong adherence to the policy of the party, effectively out talking both the left and right political wings.

As secretary of Synaspismos Youth, he took an active part in the process of creating the Greek Social Forum and attended many of the international protests and marches against neoliberal globalization.

He was elected as a member of the Central Committee of Synaspismos in 2004 and later the Political Secretariat.

In December 2004, at the 4th Congress of Synaspismos, he was elected a member of the party's Central Political Committee and consequently to the Political Secretariat, where he was responsible for educational and youth issues.

In the 2006 local election, he ran as Syriza's candidate for Mayor of Athens, winning 10.5%.

A left-wing figure, Tsipras was leader of the Greek political party Syriza from 2008 to 2023.

In 2008, he was elected as leader of Syriza, succeeding Alekos Alavanos.

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.

Tsipras is the fourth prime minister who has governed in the course of the 2010s Greek government-debt crisis.

Originally an outspoken critic of the austerity policies implemented during the crisis, his tenure in office was marked by an intense austerity policy, mostly in the context of the third EU bailout to Greece (2015–18).

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.

On 20 August 2015, seven months into his term as prime minister he lost his majority after intraparty defections, 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 oversaw negotiations regarding the Greek government-debt crisis, initiated the Greek bailout referendum, responded to the European migrant crisis, and signed the Prespa agreement.

In 2015, he was named by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people globally.

As Prime Minister of Greece, the opposition parties have accused Tsipras among other things of having capitulated to enacting increasingly harsh austerity measures to keep his country on the surface in contrast with his pre-election promises and also of having exacerbated problems that already existed in the Greek economy, with the country having lost about 25% of its GDP since the start of the crisis.