What future for Greece under the leadership of Alexis Tsipras? Five years of belt-tightening got too much for many Greeks to bear. Result: they rallied to Syriza, the party that promised to end the destructive, humbling effects of austerity.

Europe’s most indebted country rattled financial markets with the prospect of Athens and Brussels locking horns over Greece’s economic future.

There’s been less surprise in European capitals than concern, in Berlin the most of all, where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has steadfastly championed European policy of structural reform and fiscal discipline.

The German Central Bank’s Jens Weidmann said Greece must honour pledges to creditors.

MP Klaus-Peter Willsch, in Merkel’s CDU party, threw down the gauntlet:

“My advice to the new Greek government would be to get out of the euro because the competitiveness of Greece is too poor to perform well in such a strong currency. Let’s see what they think about that.”

Athens’ first Hercu