'Alexis betrayed us': Young Greeks turn their backs on Syriza

Greece's radical-left Syriza party channelled the anger and hope of a generation when it swept to power in January -- but winning young voters over again in the Sept.20 elections will not be so easy.

In Exarchia, a bohemian Athens neighbourhood beloved by students and anarchists, any mention of Syriza's leader Alexis Tsipras prompts either a resigned sigh or an expletive.
 
Young people have been hit disproportionately hard by six years of financial crisis in Greece; nearly half are unemployed.     

Syriza's pre-election promise to stand up to Athens' creditors and end austerity was music to the ears of the twenty-somethings who have been labelled Greece's "lost generation".
 
With its blunt-talking, casually dressed ministers, Syriza itself seemed to embody a youthful new defiance. Tsipras, inaugurated at 40, was the youngest prime minister in 150 years.    

Then came his spectacular U-turn in July, when he agreed to sweeping new tax rises and spending cuts in exchange for a new international bailout worth 86 billion euros ($96 billion).    

He resigned last month, triggering the early elections, after suffering a major party rebellion over the rescue deal.
 
It is difficult to find anyone in Exarchia, where the graffitied walls are sprinkled with anarchist symbols, who plans to put their faith in Syriza again when Greece votes on Sept.20.
 
"Alexis betrayed us," said Spiros, a 25-year-old drama student, as he sat smoking and drinking coffee with friends -- all of whom voted for Syriza in January.
 
Bitterly disappointed by the party and unimpressed by any of the alternatives, this group is considering not voting at all, like many others in this neighbourhood.
 
"I...