page_title: Alexis Tsipras
section_title: Second government
hierarchical_section_title: Alexis Tsipras / Prime Minister / Second term (September 2015–July 2019) / Second government
caption_attribution_description: English: Russian President Vladimir Putin with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
context_page_description: Alexis Tsipras is a Greek politician serving as Leader of the Majority Opposition since 2019. The leader of left-wing party Syriza since 2009, he served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2015 to 2019.
  Tsipras has been Leader of the Coalition of the Radical Left, a left wing political party, since 2009. He is the fourth Greek Prime Minister who has governed in the course of the 2010s government-debt crisis. Originally an outspoken critic of the austerity policies implemented during the crisis, his tenure in office has been marked by an intense austerity policy, mostly in the context of the third EU bailout to Greece.
  Tsipras was born in Athens in 1974. 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. He studied civil engineering at the National Technical University of Athens, graduating in 2000, later undertaking post-graduate studies in urban and regional planning. He worked as a civil engineer in the construction industry, based primarily in Athens.
  From 1999 to 2003, Tsipras served as the secretary of Synaspismos Youth.
context_section_description: At a September 2015 Clinton Global Initiative event, Tsipras spoke to Bill Clinton about the need to restructure the Greek debt, to make reforms in public administration and bring investments. The same month, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos celebrated the Greek victory in the battle of Salamina, causing criticism due to the junta's celebrations of similar events with the same style. In 2015, Tsipras and Kammenos oversaw the military exercise Parmenion.
  In October 2015, Tsipras sacked Greece's top tax collection official, Katerina Savvaidou, because she had allegedly granted an extension to television stations to pay a 20% tax on advertising. The government's fiscal measures prompted some backlash, with farmers threatening to bring their tractors into Athens and pharmacists going on strike. In November 2015, Tsipras received an angry reception at a refugee camp in Lesbos by around a hundred protesters, wearing life jackets and brandishing placards calling on the European Union to stop deaths by allowing asylum seekers safe and legal passage to Europe.
  In November 2015, after being jeered by anarchists, Tsipras compared them in his speech in Parliament to Golden Dawn and said that there was no need for uncalled saviors "who think that they can determinate life and death". In November 2015, Tsipras became the first Greek prime minister to visit Turkey's Aegean province of Izmir since the days of the Occupation of Smyrna, meeting Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu; they agreed to cooperate on the refugee crisis and to establish technical cooperation between Greek and Turkish coast guards.
  In May 2016, new austerity measures proposed by Tsipras passed Parliament. The legislation increased taxes to middle- and high-level income earners; make across-the-board budget cuts amounting to about 3% of Greece's GDP; removed value-added-tax discounts; cut pensions; and increase deregulation. Tsipras called for calm on the streets and defended the austerity package, saying it fell in line with the agreement reached with the EU the previous year. Further austerity legislation included a provision for "contingency" measures, including wage and pension cuts, that would take effect automatically if budget targets were derailed next year. Taxes on cigarettes, coffee and craft beer were also raised, while an unpopular property tax was restructured to increase revenues from larger buildings. A new privatisation agency was set up which would have a 99-year remit to develop and sell state-owned property. Tsipras defended his adoption of new fiscal measures, telling Parliament: "Spring may be almost over but we are looking forward to an economic spring and a return to growth this year."
  In a July 2017, Tsipras opined that the Greek economy was "on the up" and that "the worst is clearly behind us." He also expressed confidence that Greece will no longer have to rely on bailouts and international oversight in 2018. According to media reports from mid-July, Greece was considering rejoining the bond market for the first time since 2014 to borrow from the capital market. It was speculated that the government could issue a five-year bond at a time when yields on Greek bonds are their lowest since the country left the market in 2014. The announcement came a few days after the IMF "in principle" approved Greece for a conditional loan of up to $1.8 billion. The IMF made the payment of the loans contingent on Greece's debt sustainability, demanding that euro-zone countries provide debt relief to the country.
  In October 2017 Prime Minister Tsipras met with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C., at which Trump told Tsipras that he supported a "responsible debt relief' plan for Greece as they recovered from the economic crisis in the country. Trump added that his administration had informed Congress of a potential sale to upgrade the F-16 aircraft in Greece's air force, a deal that could be worth $2.4 billion.
  Greece officially concluded its three-year European Stability Mechanism (ESM) financial assistance programme on August 20, 2018, fo
caption: Tsipras and Russian President Vladimir Putin, 15 May 2017
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