Greece election: Alexis Tsipras keen to reunite with Independent Greeks in coalition

Alexis Tsipras has reached out to the Independent Greeks to form a new coalition government after his left-wing party Syriza received the largest proportion of votes in a snap election on Sunday 20 September.

Syriza won an impressive 35.5% of the votes cast, which means it will hold 145 seats in parliament. The Greeks had more confidence in the party than was initially expected, with exit polls estimating it would receive around 29%-35% of votes.

The Independent Greeks was part of the former government as well. The nationalist party won 10 seats, meaning that the coalition would have a 155 majority out of 300 seats. 75 seats will be held by the right-wing Golden Dawn party, which received around 28.2% votes from the Greeks.

After winning the election with better results than exit polls suggested, Tsipras took to Twitter to thank voters and express his desire to move forward. "I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for this great victory, a victory of the people," he wrote. "A clear mandate to cast aside those forces that have been holding us back. Today, both Greece and the Greek people are synonymous with pride and perseverance.

He also reached out directly to Panos Kammenos, the leader of the Independent Greeks, making it known he was keen on getting started with governing the debt-ridden country again. He tweeted:

"This victory belongs to the working classes," he added. "Starting tomorrow, we begin our work to tackle these problems."

The party has given itself three days to sort out a government. The Independent Greeks was not sure it would do well enough to get into parliament but the party scored about 3.66% of the votes and secured 10 seats, a lot better than expected.

In his tweets, the 41-year-old Tsipras, who resigned on 20 August and called the snap election, hinted that the Troika institutions could expect more rebellion from the party.

"Syriza will stand tall, it won't be intimidated," speaking of a mandate "to put an end to systemic corruption. A clear mandate for a four year term."

Although the €86bn (£63bn, $97bn)bailout package received in August has been implemented, the country still has a staggering €317bn debt. The relief of this debt and negotiations with the country's creditors are believed to be on top of Tsipras's agenda.

Francois Cabau, Nikolaos Sgouropoulos and Antonio Garcia Pascual, analysts at Barclays, commented that the coalition between the Independent Greeks and Syriza is "likely to be a more stable coalition than the potential three-party alliance that the latest polls had signalled".

Although many analysts warned of the many headwinds the Greek government will face in the coming months and years, they said: "With its dissident leftist segment having formed a separate party that failed to enter parliament, Mr Tsipras should have a more stable political formation."

Kammenos's party and Syriza have their desire to battle and negotiate with the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Union in common, but otherwise cover very different sides of the political spectrum.

The Popular Unity party, largely made up of former Syriza MPs who did not find enough common ground with Tsipras and his allies, received around 2.86% of the votes and failed to secure a seat in parliament.