Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party sports a 9.5-percentage point lead over ruling SYRIZA in the latest monthly opinion poll by the Pulse firm, although dropping 1.5 percentage points from the previous month’s result.
The results are derived a question asking respondents who they would vote for if elections were held the next day, with an extrapolation of valid responses then calculated. The poll, as with the previous ones by the same firm, was presented on the prime-time Skai TV newscast.
Specifically, ND is preferred by 31.5 percent of respondents (33 percent in October 2018) to 22 percent for leftist SYRIZA, the same as last month.
Without an extrapolation of valid votes, the difference is nine percentage points – 30.5 percent to 21.5 percent.
Asked a somewhat “loaded” question, namely, if the poll-trailing Tsipras government’s recent and very prominent promises of thousands of public sector hirings will affect their vote, 53 percent of respondents said only very remotely or not at all; 11 percent answered only “remotely”; 10 percent answered in the affirmative, and 10 percent answered “very much”.
In terms of other parties, the mostly PASOK-led Kinima Allagi social/social democrat grouping polls 8 percent; 7.5 percent for ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) and 6.5 percent for the Communist Party (KKE).
No other party or grouping in given above 3 percent, the threshold that must be exceeded for a party to enter Greece’s 300-MP parliament.
The undecided/NA figure reached 13.5 percent of respondents.
Asked which party leader is best suited for the prime minister’s post, ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was preferred by 35 percent of respondents, edging out the “no one” answer, at 34 percent. Current Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ was preferred by 24 percent of respondents.
