Profile: Greek centrist leader Vassilis Leventis, surprise winner of Sunday's elections

The leader of the Greek Union of Centrists party Vassilis Leventis was the surprise winner of Sunday's snap general elections among the small parties.

A familiar figure to Greek citizens through his late night appearances on small television channels where he would strongly criticize mainstream parties for years, he succeeded in entering the Greek parliament for first time after four decades of consistent fight and persistence.

The Centrists Union won 3.43 percent and 9 seats in the next 300-member strong assembly.

In the last parliamentary election, in January 2015, the party had scored 1.79 percent of votes, far shorter than the 3 percent threshold needed under the Greek Constitution to enter the parliament.

Born in Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece and raised in Piraeus port, the 64-year-old civil engineer with studies at the National Technical University of Athens, started his political career ­­in 1974 as a founding member and later as an MP candidate of Greece's socialist party PASOK.

Blaming it for divergence from its original program, he withdrew in 1981 and returned to the political scene with his own party in 1984, the first ecological party in Greece, which participated in the European Elections of the same year, gaining only 0.15 percent of the vote.

In 1992 Leventis established the Centrists Union party continuing blasting on TV the mainstream parties for corruption, nepotism and in recent years the debt crisis.

He became famous using colorful language and curses against political leaders.

His popularity - in particular among younger generations according to pollsters - rose as voters turned their backs to the largest parties due to their handling of the crisis.

Leventis is in favor of radical reform to exit the crisis. His party's political program for example includes the dismissal of 1,500 employees at the parliament and other civil servants who actually do not work.

He also suggests the elimination of pensions for retirees who have an income of more than 3,000 euros (3,341 U.S. dollars) per month from other sources. Endit