Tsipras wins confidence vote ahead of crucial debt negotiations

Greek prime minister singles out German chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schiuble for criticism as he vows to get to work

After three days of heated debate, Greece's new government received a vote of confidence late on Tuesday as the country steeled itself for crucial negotiations with the creditors keeping it afloat.

Alexis Tsipras, the firebrand catapulted to power on the back of fierce opposition to the austerity endured by the nation in recent years, easily won the motion with 162 votes. Some 137 MPs rejected the call. Nikolaos Michaloliakos, the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn abstained citing illness.