One of the first opinion polls after the July 7 election this week has ruling New Democracy (ND) party extending its voter approval ratings and its distance from main opposition SYRIZA party.
According to the firm Opinion Poll, center-right ND is given an 18-percentage-point lead over leftist SYRIZA, substantially up from the 8.32-percentage-point difference in the July general election, where ND came in first and formed a majority government.
Specifically, 41.9 percent of respondents in the poll preferred ND to 23.07 percent for SYRIZA. The social democrat KINAL party – more-or-less the successor of once dominant PASOK – follows at a distant third, 5.37 percent. The Communist Party is at 4.46 percent, while two newcomers that squeezed into Parliament last July are below 3 percent, according to the opinion poll results, at least. Exceeding a 3-percent threshold of valid votes in a general election is necessary for Parliament representation.
A “honeymoon” phase for the new Mitsotakis government is apparently continuing, as 66.15 percent of respondents positively rate the latter’s initiatives, such as abolishing the university asylum regime that prevented the entry of law enforcement. Satisfaction with the government’s work reaches 55 percent.
New PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis is also enjoying a fillip in his approval ratings since assuming the country’s helm, with 50.46 percent of respondents considering him as best suited for prime minister, to 20.75 percent for his predecessor, Alexis Tsipras.
The nationwide poll was conducted between Sept. 2 and 4 on a sample of 1,102 households.
