ATHENS, Greece, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The left-wing, anti-austerity Syriza party has defeated the incumbent New Democracy conservative party in the Greek general elections with almost 40 percent of total votes.
Official projections give Syriza 150 seats of the necessary 151 to have gained an absolute majority. Exit polls indicated Syriza took between 36 to 39 percent of the votes.
Syriza's leader, Alexis Tsipras, 40, promised to end some of Greece's austerity measures sparked by economic bailouts in 2010 and also pledged to renegotiate the country's debt.
First official projection of final result in Greek elections. #Greece #ekloges2015 pic.twitter.com/7JdJOg9ltK
— MacroPolis (@MacroPolis_gr) January 25, 2015"Democracy will return to Greece," Tsipras said Sunday as he cast his ballot. "The message is that our common future in Europe is not the future of austerity.
Fears of a Syriza win included Greece defaulting on its debt and exiting the eurozone.
#Tsipras declared election day to be the last step of the #Greek people towards regaining social cohesion and dignity pic.twitter.com/tJsN4lX1MI
— Mitra Yousefi (@Myth_ra) January 25, 2015Tsipras is likely to become the next prime minister of Greece.
New Democracy party member and Greek Health Minister Makis Voridis conceded defeat on television.
"We lost," he said. "The extent of that result is not yet clear."
Greece's government debt was 175 percent of gross domestic product ($242.2 billion) in 2013.
