Main opposition New Democracy (ND) party continued to field a double-digit percentage point lead over ruling SYRIZA in the latest opinion poll results published on Sunday, although the latter appears to have rebounded from its approval ratings “free fall” over the past few months.
According to results of the opinion poll, conducted by the firm Marc and published in the weekly “Proto Thema”, center-right ND is given 29 percent of respondents’ preference to leftist SYRIZA’s 18.9 percent.
“Proto Thema” is Greece’s best-selling weekly newspaper and a sharp media critic of the current leftist-rightist Tsipras coalition government.
In terms of other parties, a new political formation mostly led by socialist PASOK, called “Kinima Allagis” (Movement for Change), polled 9.1 percent, leaving ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) in fourth place with 6.7 percent. The Communist Party (KKE), at 6.4 percent, is the only other party given above 3 percent in the opinion poll. A 3-percent total of the overall valid vote in a general election is the necessary threshold to enter Parliament under Greece’s election law.
In another timely question, 81 percent of respondents said they do not believe that the memorandum era will end in August 2018, when the current and third consecutive bailout officially concludes.
