"ELECTIONS are won from the centre," insist the all-knowing "special advisers" of mainstream parties. Not any more, it seems. For Greece has turned another of their shibboleths to dust by electing Europe's first radical left-wing government since the 1930s.

The spectacular success of Syriza, the coalition of the radical left, in the Greek general election last Sunday has dramatically altered European politics. And if there were butterflies in Berlin and Brussels and nervousness in New York, as the European Central Bank, European Union and the International Monetary Fund only have themselves to blame for having impoverished and humiliated the Greek people over the past six years with the draconian terms demanded in their bail-out bonds.

Those wondering how a party of Marxists, ecologists and feminists could win such a vote in a major European state in the 21st century might on reflection find the answer not as difficult to fathom as they think. For the economic and social catastrophe imposed on Greece by the Troika (the European Central Bank, European Union and the International Monetary Fund) has pushed the country to the brink. They have the second-highest debts per-capita in the world and the economy has contracted by 25% since 2008. Having run up those debts, Pasok (the Greek Labour Party) and New Democracy (the Tories) then acted as enforcers for the repayments. Voters this time opted for the only other choice open to them.

I had the privilege of witnessing Syriza's triumph first-hand. As leader of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) I was invited to Athens by the coalition, to observe their stunning success and to strengthen links between the SSP, Syriza and the other parties in the European left bloc.

"Hope is coming. Greece is advancing. Europe is changing." If Syriza's election slogan sounds like "Another world is possible" - the mantra coined by the burgeoning social movements worldwide - it is meant to. Many of Syriza's leaders, including Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, participated in the World Social Forums held in Seattle, Genoa and Porto Allegre and that is where the radical left's message and method were developed and finessed.

Syriza, founded in 2012, may be the "new kids on the block" as far as Greek politics is concerned but the men and women who make up its leadership are steeped in the socialist tradition, and many were persecuted by the brutal military junta that ran the country until 1974. Their victory during the toughest economic period in Greece's history is hugely significant for European politics.

After winning the election, Tsipras moved quickly to secure a parliamentary majority. With a deft piece of political footwork he persuaded Anel (the Independent Greeks party) to join a coalition, thus garnering a further 10 seats at no cost to his key policy platform. Although on the right, Anel has backed Syriza's anti-austerity programme in the Greek parliament consistently over the last two years. Few Greek governments get to serve their full four-year terms. Syriza, however, will now be able to implement their radical left-wing programme in every ministry, safe in the knowledge they can deploy 159 of the 300 votes in parliament. Internationally they now have a voice at the United Nations, on Nato's high command, on the European Commission and on all other inter-governmental institutions in the world. Not bad for a 19-partner coalition made up, as their logo makes clear, of Marxists, ecologists and feminists.

How does Tsipras realise his goals? Syriza has been planning for government for many months. Ahead in the polls since they won the European elections in May, they precipitated the January election after the previous government failed to win the necessary two-thirds majority needed to elect the largely ceremonial Greek president.

At the centre of their plan sits Syriza's manifesto, the Thessaloniki Declaration. This document spells out Syriza's seven-point "relief" plan, which seeks to rescind 50% of Greece's debts. The coalition also propose to convene a conference of European debtor nations to press for wide-scale debt cancellation. They fully acknowledge Greece cannot secure such reforms on its own and call for concrete solidarity action from all their international supporters.

On the home front, the Declaration commits them to double the state pension and national minimum wage to 700 and 751 euro's per month respectively, to create 300,000 new jobs, to introduce full collective bargaining rights for workers and to reflate the economy through a spending programme that includes food stamps and energy coupons provided free to those most in need.

Therein lies the DNA of Syriza. It is anti-austerity, anti-neo-liberal, internationalist and anti-materialist. And given Greece's appalling economic condition, the need to unchain itself from the shackles of crippling debt is essential.

Tsipras's message to Greece's creditors is that the country simply cannot pay back the 319bn euros loaned to it. He intends to negotiate terms that are fairer, sustainable and recognise the new political, economic and budgetary realities in Greece and Europe as a whole. "We will stand by our financial obligations in any new re-negotiated agreement reached," he said last week in a statement designed to appease the money markets.

While most people doubt Tsipras will get all he wants, he has nonetheless unearthed an important precedent for such a dramatic course of action. In 1953, the allied powers wrote off Germany's war debts to help rebuild the shattered European state. Tsipras insists Greece is in a similarly distressed condition today. Moreover, Tsipras points out that huge quantities of gold and valuable treasures stolen by the Nazis during their wartime occupation of Greece should be returned. He is keen, however, to stress that Greece is not anti-German, and reiterates that his country's debts are with international institutions and not individual nations.

Should the negotiations fail, his message remains that Greece will not pay. "Let's assume I owe you a million dollars," he asks. "You have two options. One, is to give me the chance to have some income so that I can pay you back, even 50% of it. Or two, let me lose everything, go bankrupt and you get nothing. What would you choose?"

It is the creditor's classic dilemma: accept 50% of something or insist on 100% of nothing. But Tsipras knows no serious economic analyst in the world believes Greece can pay back such crippling debts. Indeed Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, last week heaped further pressure on the European Central Bank to concede ground by suggesting that the money markets had already factored in substantial Greek debt cancellations.

For all the rhetoric, Syriza, too, realise that they will have to reach a compromise. But it must be one they can sell to the party and the wider electorate. That is the fine calculation they must continuously weigh up. The price of failure is high. It will be the end of the party if they don't get it right. The Greek people are desperate and impatient for change.

A classic EU compromise seems likely as the Troika do not want Greece to leave the EU or eurozone and neither does Syriza. That "nuclear" option as it were brings "mutually assured destruction" and will be avoided.

A veteran of many a campaign during his 70 years, Syriza spokesperson Stelios Pappas accepts Syriza faces enormous challenges in government. He sits on the party's 200-strong central committee and insists Syriza are prepared for all that their opponents can throw at them. "We have considered all scenarios," he told me as we sat in Syriza's Omonia headquarters drinking strong coffee, "and we are prepared for them." Financial instability induced by the Troika has been fully considered as has a campaign of non-co-operation from wealthy Greek oligarchs in shipping and the media whom Syriza are determined to tax.

Failure to deliver for the poor and most desperate could lead to splits inside Syriza's broad coalition, however. The predominant faction, Synapsismous, to which Tsipras and Papas belong, plays down the possibility of a split, insisting the party is entirely focused on winning and is united behind Tsipras's popular leadership.

So who is Alexis Tsipras? He was born in 1974 in a working-class neighbourhood in the north of Athens. His parents were Communist Party (KKE) members, and he joined the party at the age of 16. He qualified as an engineer but politics quickly took priority in his life. He left the KKE in 1989 when the worldwide communist movement was thrown into turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet Union. A committed Euro-communist, he joined Synapsismous, a coalition of Marxists like him, environmentalists, feminists and left-wing social democrats. Synapsismous was the central driving influence behind the formation of Syriza in 2010 and remains pivotal today.

I met him last week, after the final Syriza election rally at a reception for international guests in an Athens arts centre. I found him to be relaxed, charming, confident, witty, patient and intelligent. He is also a powerful and gifted orator. Watching at close quarters as he spoke at various events, I was impressed by his coolness, his passion and above all his integrity. He is well liked and respected in the party and beyond. In an election otherwise dominated by grey-haired old men in suits and ties, he comes across as youthful. Untarnished by previous political scandals, he is the voice of the new generation.

Like all Syriza MPs, Tsipras gives 20% of his parliamentary salary to the party and donates a further 20% to fund social programmes across Greece providing medical care, food and other support to those in greatest need. This tradition, which the Scottish Socialist Party also adheres to, follows the advice James Connolly offered those seeking to represent working people in "bourgeois institutions": to "rise with your class not out if it".

Greece is not, as some lazy commentators suggest, "a socialist country" following last Sunday's result. It takes more than the election of a radical left-wing government to achieve that: much, more. Incidentally the word "socialist" rarely appears on Syriza materials and this is initially disconcerting for many of their left-wing allies. But their logic is that in Greece, its meaning is poorly understood. Pasok roughly translates as the Greek socialist party and they are widely discredited. The potential for further confusion is obvious when the neo-liberal French president, Francois Hollande, is the leader of the French "Socialist" Party. And the similarly misnamed 'Socialist Workers Party' in Spain [PSOE] has little in common with Syriza. All these examples show the need for clarity in Greece and elsewhere.

Bona fide socialists the world over dearly hope that Syriza succeeds and continues to inspire anti-austerity campaigners and the anti-neo-liberal movement. We do have fears, however, that Syriza's support could collapse if they cannot deliver on their ambitious promises. We have been disappointed before. In 1999, a radical left-wing breakaway from the Italian Communist Party, called Refondacione, also offered great hope and yet it failed to flower. The same thing happened to the French Anti-Capitalist Party, the Occupy movement and several others. We all sincerely hope Syriza does not go the same way.

As for the radical left in Scotland, how can we benefit from Syriza's breakthrough? First, by realising that Scotland is not Greece. Economically, socially and politically the differences are profound; therefore, Syriza's famous victory cannot simply be copied here. On the other hand, if Syriza can bring together 19 diverse left-wing groups on a principled and sustainable basis sharing common policies and take electoral power we in Scotland must rise to the challenge.

The ideas we share with Syriza are just as popular here in Scotland. There is great potential for the left standing on our own Declaration as it were similarly committed to combating austerity and neoliberalism. That coalition would have to support independence because a commitment to self-determination and a rejection of the British state is now such a defining issue for the wider progressive movement in Scotland. It would also be committed to the broad working-class movement and organised on a pluralist basis respecting differences and the struggle itself. If progress can be made along those lines, we can look to win seats at Holyrood again in 2016 because winning elections and implementing change is our goal too and in that regard, Syriza's experience offers valuable lessons.

Colin Fox is the leader of the Scottish Socialist Party