Alexis Tsipras was sworn in as Prime Minister following the Greek election held on Sunday. The AP reports that breaking with tradition, Tsipras swore a secular oath, forgoing the Greek Orthodox ceremony which usually accompanies such swearings in.

Tsipras' Syriza party won 36.3 percent of the vote, beating the incumbent conservatives garnering 28 percent, however Syriza fell two seats short of the minimum 151 of 300 needed to form a government withoat coalition support.

A self-proclaimed Communist, Tsipras' campaign focused on relief from European austerity measures by way of renegotiating the terms of Greece's 2010 bailout from the European Union. The new far-left Prime Minister is the first communist head of state in Europe since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Tuesday (Jan. 27) the anti-bailout right-wing Independent Greeks announced that the new government will include members from its party, a coalition ally to Syriza. Independent Greek party member Yanis Varoufakis will be sworn in as Greece's new finance minister.

The election saw Parliamentary gains by Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party, which has raised controversy for its national socialist platform.

Speaking on the Steve Gruber Show, British Member of the European Parliament Dan Hannan blames the centralized Euro for the problems of many of the smaller economies in the Union. Hannan argues that the communist victory in Greece is a disaster for supporters of the Euro.

Daniel Hannan, photo courtesy http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps
Daniel Hannan, photo courtesy http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps
loading...

Mr. Hannan says that the single currency only hurts "ordinary working people."

Disagreeing with supporters of the Euro, Hannan blames the rise in European political extremism on the Euro.

Greece's crippling debt problem might be solved by its leaving the Economic Union, according to British MEP Hannan, and he says that European bureaucrats are to blame for the economic condition in Greece.

More From 1240 WJIM AM