Alexis Tsipras steps down as Syriza leader after Greek election rout

Tsipras’s Syriza party received under 18% of the vote in Sunday’s election, while the New Democracy party topped 40%. Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

Alexis Tsipras, the former student activist who rose to become Greece’s first radical leftwing prime minister, has resigned as leader of Syriza four days after the party’s crushing defeat in general elections.

Eight years after taking Europe by storm, Tsipras said he was stepping down to make way for a new leader who could oversee Syriza’s “profound renewal”.