The Tormentor of Europe

In Greece, a once obscure politician may hold the fate of the euro in his grip

Eirini Vourloumis FOR TIME

Greek Politician Alexis Tsipras, on the rooftop of Syriza Party Headquarters.

A framed photograph of Che Guevara exhaling a cloud of cigar smoke hangs on a wall in the modest office of Alexis Tsipras in central Athens. It's an easy symbol for those in Europe who see the leftist Greek politician as a dangerous ideologue threatening to drag his country out of the euro and bring drachmageddon not only to Greece but to the rest of the European Union. The demonization bemuses Tsipras, 37, a calm civil engineer who says he's merely a realist. "Greece has been a European and international experiment, and the Greek people have been the guinea pigs," Tsipras...

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