PM’s leadership ratings intact
Despite his recent problems, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is considered a much more capable leader than PASOK’s George Papandreou, although voters appear to be warming to the Socialist chief, a new survey has shown. The Public Issue opinion poll, conducted for Sunday’s Kathimerini, indicates that 45 percent of voters highly rate Karamanlis’s leadership skills. Only 18 percent think Papandreou is a good leader. Karamanlis is also seen as understanding best the problems that Greece faces by 38 percent of respondents, while only 25 percent said the same of Papandreou. However, the PASOK leader has improved his ratings in a number of areas such as on whether he has the best ideas or policies – 44 percent of respondents, compared to 38 for Karamanlis, say he does. Papandreou also appears to have convinced voters that he is «closer» to them than any other party leader. In 2004, only 29 percent thought this of him but now the number has increased to 48 percent. Overall though, Karamanlis is also seen as more convincing, smarter, more dynamic and bolder than Papandreou, whereas the Socialist head is regarded as being more optimistic, having more foresight and being more instantly likable. The survey, for which more than 1,100 people were questioned, was carried out between Monday and Friday of last week, which ended with Karamanlis delivering a speech to New Democracy’s central committee in which he warned rebels within the party that he will expel them if they act out of line. Karamanlis’s pledge was put to the test straight away, as conservative MP Thanassis Yiannopoulos called for Karamanlis to sack government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos in an interview with Proto Thema newspaper. Yiannopoulos said that he gave the interview before the prime minister’s speech but the newspaper said it received the answers a few hours after Karamanlis spoke.
