[johnuioyer]

By RACHEL DONADIO and LIZ ALDERMAN
Published: May 18, 2012 The New York Times


Alexis Tsipras, 37, vaulted to prominence less than two weeks ago, when his party placed second in national elections.

ATHENS — At 37, and looking not a bit his years, Alexis Tsipras is clearly enjoying his moment. He vaulted to prominence
less than two weeks ago, when his previously obscure left-wing party placed second in national elections with the promise
of repudiating the loan agreement Greece’s previous leaders signed in February.

Since then, he has engaged in a high-stakes game of chicken with Europe’s leaders. While they have scrambled to put
together contingency plans in case Greece exits the euro zone, Mr. Tsipras has calmly stated his case and let the rest of
Europe sweat about the possibly disastrous ramifications if it does.

While Mr. Tsipras clearly has much of Europe on the run, he hardly seems to be breaking a sweat. In Mr. Tsipras’s view —
which neatly dovetails with the rising anti-austerity tide across Europe — Greece’s problem is a European problem that
needs a European solution. He insisted that he wants Greece to stay in the euro, just not under the terms of its current
bailout.

While other political parties in Greece are now also calling to renegotiate the loan deal, it is Mr. Tsipras, an untested leftist
who could well become Greece’s next prime minister in elections on June 17, who has positioned himself in a showdown
with Greece’s lenders.

In the interview, he said he would not veer from pledges to repudiate terms of Greece’s bailout that forced wrenching
hardship on average Greeks, a stance that may lead Greece’s lenders to withhold further aid and set off a default.

But while Mr. Tsipras has sometimes been portrayed in the European news media as a wild-eyed radical, he is a cool
strategist playing a game of brinkmanship with the rest of Europe, and particularly Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.

In the past, German and other European leaders have made last-minute maneuvers to keep Greece in the euro, precisely
because of fears that an exit would carry too high a cost, from bank collapses across Europe to destabilization of the
global financial system.

Mr. Tsipras seems to be betting that they will blink again, but whether they will is far from clear.