Chaos or Kudos? Tsipras’s Tactics Leave Greeks a Costly Legacy

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has shown himself to be anything but a predictable negotiator.

From suggesting tourists help catch tax-dodgers to e-mailing the wrong draft hours before Monday’s emergency summit, Tsipras and his government used tactics that have proved alien to the more orderly world of the euro region: adversarial, ideological and, on occasion, chaotic. At home, the strategy excited a hurt nation that saw the brinkmanship as bravery. In Brussels and Berlin, it infuriated potential allies.