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Greece's new prime minister, 40-year-old Alexis Tsipras, is the youngest leader that country has seen in over a century.

But Tsipras brings with him a bigger change to Greece than just his youth: his victorious left-wing party, Syriza, has teamed with an unlikely ally—Greece's far-right party, the Independent Greeks—in strong opposition to austerity measures imposed on the country by the European Union.

Syriza is promising Greece a host of new social programs , including aid for the poor and major tax reforms like the abolition of the property tax. But it is unlikely that Greece's fragile, cash-strapped economy will be able to shoulder such in addition to the burden of repaying its  7 billion loan to the European Central Bank.

That could lead to Greece defaulting on its loans and potentially even abandoning the euro for the drachma, which could spell out big problems for the European Union—even collapse.

Charles Sennott, co-founder of GlobalPost and head of The GroundTruth Project , joined Boston Public Radio with Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to discuss how Tsipras's election may shock the EU's already-fragile economy. 

"There's a few worries among economists that this could really unravel what is a relatively new experiment in the European Union's formation," Sennott said.

"The EU has not really tested its mettle in a crisis, and it has one now," he said.

To hear more from Charles Sennott, tune in to his full interview on Boston Public Radio above.