Tsipras Pushes to Power With Promise to Keep Euro and End Greek Austerity

It was in the U.S. where Alexis Tsipras chose to step into Europe’s political mainstream.

At a conference at the University of Texas at Austin in November 2013, as Greeks a continent away prepared for winter with higher taxes on heating oil, Tsipras said Greece belonged in the euro area, despite the currency’s faults. No country should leave and any departure would be “game on” for speculators about who the next victim might be, he said.