Poll puts ND and SYRIZA nose-to-nose; slams EU
Should general elections be held in Greece today, ruling New Democracy and opposition SYRIZA would come nose-to-nose with 20.3 percent of the vote, a recent public opinion poll has found, though Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is still seen as being more suitable to govern the country with 46 percent than leftist leader Alexis Tsipras, who polled at 29.3 percent.
Conducted by GPO in the March 28 – April 1 period for Mega television, the poll further showed ultranationalist party Golden Dawn garnering 9 percent of the vote and governing coalition partners PASOK and Democratic Left getting 7.5 and 5 percent respectively.
Nationalist Independent Greeks polled at 6.3 percent and the Greek Communist Party (KKE) at 5.8 percent.
Asked who they consider most suitable for prime minister, 46 percent of respondents opted for Samaras, 29.3 percent for Tsipras and 23.5 percent for “nobody.”
Samaras also topped the popularity chart with 42 percent on the question of how positively respondents feel about the country’s political leaders. He is followed by Fotis Kouvelis of Democratic Left with 41.8 percent, Tsipras with 38.3 percent, Panos Kammenos of Independent Greeks with 33.3 percent, Evangelos Venizelos of PASOK with 32.6 percent, KKE’s Aleka Papariga with 30.2 percent and Golden Dawn’s Nikos Michaloliakos with 14.7 percent.
In terms of the crisis-hit country’s situation, 60.3 percent believe it is worse now than it was before the June general elections, 19.9 percent believe it is better and 19.3 percent see things as unchanged.
Asked how they view the government’s efforts to overcome the crisis, 61.6 percent gave a negative response and 37.3 percent said it was doing a good job, while 73.7 percent of respondents said that SYRIZA is not ready to govern the country.
An overwhelming 90.1 percent of respondents also said that they don’t believe that the European Union is acting in the best interest of the people.
