Tsipras savours election win but dark clouds are gathering over Greece

The mood in Athens is as sombre as the weather as weary Greeks contemplate further spending cuts under fifth prime minister since eurozone crisis began

A huge storm, violent, dark and loud, rumbled through Greece, thunder and lightning skittering through the skies. After Sunday's general elections it was not lost on many: Athenians saw in the tempest a perfect metaphor, an omen even, that the old was finally being washed away.

"People voted for change, for what they believed would be a fresh start," Lefteris Pavlis, who owns a chain of eateries in the city centre, said on Monday. "They voted to give Alexis Tsipras a second chance, which says a lot about the state of the opposition."

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