Rajoy, Spain’s conservative prime minister, campaigned for Samaras in Athens. Given the rise of Podemos, Spanish conservatives were desperate to avoid a left-wing victory. But on January 25, 2015, that is what the Greek voters delivered. Syriza, led by the youthful activist Alexis Tsipras, formed a government and, refuting the expectations of moderate social democrats in Berlin and Brussels, picked as its coalition partner not the centrist pro-European To Potami but the ultranationalist ANEL.
