Brad Power

Tsipras: Europe 's Chavez or Worse? Brad Power

Publisher Marketing: Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek Prime Minister, began his political career as an activist of the youth section of the Communist Party. Later, he became the leader of Synaspismos and its successor party Syriza. Both were a coalition of Marxist parties including the Communists and Maoists. The 40-year old Tsipras is an admirer of revolutionary leaders such as Fidel Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara and Hugo Chavez. He named his son Ernesto after the Argentinean-Cuban revolutionary. Two years ago, he flew to Caracas, Venezuela, to attend the funeral of Chavez. Many of the new Greek ministers are former members of the Communist Party of Greece [KKE]. Nikos Kotzias, the new minister of Foreign Affairs, was a member of the Central Committee of the KKE. Other prominent Communists in the new Greek cabinet are Giorgios Stathakis, the Minister of Economics and Infrastructure, Panaghiotis Lafazanis, the Minister of Energy, and Panos Skourletis, the Minister of Labor and Social Solidarity. Yiannis Dragasakis, also a former member of the Central Committee of the KKE, is Greece's new Deputy Prime Minister. Although the new finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, does not have a past in the KKE, he is an economist who describes himself as a libertarian Marxist.