The Coalition of the Radical Left[16] (Greek: ,

Synaspisms Rizospastiks Aristers), known colloquially by its acronym SYRIZA (Greek:

, pronounced [siiza]), is a left-wing political party in Greece, originally founded as a
coalition of left-wing and radical left parties.
The coalition originally comprised a broad array of groups (thirteen in total) and independent
politicians, including democratic socialists, left-wing populist and green left groups, as well as
Maoist, Trotskyist,[citation needed] eurocommunist but also eurosceptic components. Additionally,
despite its secular ideology, many members are Christians who, like their atheistic fellow members,
are opposed to the privileges of the state-sponsored Orthodox Church of Greece.[17] Its
parliamentary leader is Alexis Tsipras, formerly president of Synaspisms, the largest group in the
coalition. From 2013 the coalition became a unitary party, although it retained its name with the
addition of "United Social Front". Although Alexis Tsipras clarified that Syriza "does not support
any sort of Euroscepticism",[18] at the same time, the party is seen as a soft eurosceptic force.[19]
[20]
In 2012 Syriza became the second largest party in the Greek parliament and the main opposition
party. It came in first in the 2014 European Parliament election.[21] In mid-2014, polls showed it
had become the country's most popular party.[22][23] In 2015, in the snap polls held on 25 January,
Syriza defeated the ruling coalition and went on to become the winning coalition getting 36.3% of
the popular vote and 149 out of 300 seats in the Hellenic Parliament.[24]
Syriza has been characterized as an anti-establishment party,[25][26] whose success has sent
"shock-waves across the EU".[27] Although it has abandoned its old identity, that of a hard-left
protest voice, becoming more populist in character, and claiming that it will not abandon the
Eurozone,[28] at the same time, its leader Alexis Tsipras has declared that the "euro is not my
fetish".[29] Recently, the Vice President of the European Parliament and Syriza MEP Dimitrios
Papadimoulis stated that Greece should "be a respectable member of the European Union and the
euro zone"[30] and that "there is absolutely no case for a Grexit".[31]

Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras