NEWS

New poll shows Greeks’ conflicting desires

Most Greeks want to stay in the eurozone with a revision of the country’s debt deal with internatonal creditors and would prefer a coalition government to emerge from June 17 general elections, according to an opinion poll by GPO for private television channel Mega.

A total of 80.9 percent of the 1,600 respondents polled said they want Greece to remain in the eurozone at any cost but 77.8 percent also want the so-called memorandum — the country’s debt agreement with creditors — to be amended. A total of 66.4 percent want a coalition government to rule the country, according to the poll which put conservative New Democracy slightly ahead of the leftist SYRIZA which has rejected the memorandum.

According to the GPO survey, 23.4 percent of respondents said they plan to vote for ND compared to 22.1 percent for Syriza with socialist PASOK drawing 13.5 percent of the vote, the anti-bailout Independent Greeks garnering 7.4 percent, the Communist Party 5.9 percent, Democratic Left 5.1 percent and the extreme-right Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) 4.2 percent.

Asked who was the best choice for prime minister, 22.7 percent said ND leader Antonis Samaras, 19.4 percent chose SYRIZA chief Alexis Tsipras with exactly the same proportion supporting PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos.

Nearly half (47.9 percent) of respondents noted that Tsipras was to blame for the failure to form a government after the inconclusive results of the May 6 polls.

As for their voting criteria, 36.5 percent said their priority was that a government be formed after the elections, 24.6 percent said it was to secure the country’s position in the eurozone and 15.3 percent said it was to condemn the memorandum.

GPO’s poll also showed that of the 7 percent of Greeks who voted for Chrysi Avgi in the May 6 polls, 60 percent did it as a protest vote, 29.3 percent did it «to get rid of illegal immigrants» while only 4.8 percent described themselves as far-right.

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