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UNI Europa Regional Secretary, Oliver Roethig said, “The Greek people have voted for change. After five years of austerity depriving people of jobs and youth a future, they have said enough is enough. The Troika has overreached itself and been met with a wall of legitimate democratic opposition.”

On his return from Davos, UNI Global Union General Secretary, Philip Jennings said, “The new Greek government has a clear mandate. The politicians and business leaders who gathered in Davos last week must take note and the Troika must look again at the path it has chosen and inject new thinking into its approach to jobs and growth. It is time for the Troika to stop feeding austerity and inequality. The EU Commission is injecting a trillion euro into the Eurozone. In the end, for Greece and every other EU country, this is not simply about money, it is about humanity.”

Greece’s Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras has vowed to end ‘five years of humiliation and pain’ and said he will renegotiate the country’s international debt repayment.  The left wing Syriza party looks set to have 149 seats, just two short of an absolute majority. Tsipras said, “Today the people of Greece wrote history.”

Italy’s EU Affairs Minister Sandro Gozi commented, "After this vote we will have new opportunities to pursue change in Europe to create growth and investment and fight against unemployment." For other countries too under the cosh of the Trokia’s austerity measures, including Spain and Portugal, the Greek vote is a line in the sand against measures which have failed to get Europe’s accounts balanced and have prevented growth.