A reasonable man who can discuss different ideas

Athens

ALEXIS Tsipras, the left-wing candidate who may well become prime minister of Greece next weekend, was taking questions from the public the other night on Twitter. Someone asked whether he would eliminate the country's hefty value-added taxes on basic necessities.

No, he said, he was "not going to promise things we can't do". But the promises that he has made are enough to suggest that Greece under his leadership would take a sharp turn from its direction of the past five years, when it has grudgingly adhered to European insistence on deep budget cutting in return for the financial assistance necessary to keep it afloat.

Mr Tsipras, 40, leads the Syriza Party, which polls suggest is likely to control the next government after elections next Sunday. He has emerged as a more pol…