The ruling New Democracy Conservatives are in a neck-and-neck battle with the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) party among Greeks, who also are split over whether the government has done enough to catch tax evaders and clamp down on corruption.
The survey carried by the Marc agency for the Alpha TV station showed New Democracy with 28.2 percent compared to 27.9 percent for SYRIZA. The good news for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was that 62.3 percent believed he had avoided bankruptcy for the country by securing new international aid, even though it came at the price of harsh new austerity measures.
Only 52.7 percent of respondents said they believed the coalition government was not doing enough to curb graft as new plans are emerging to hunt down tax cheats.
The vast majority of those participating in the poll (75.9 percent) felt that a probe regarding a list of Greeks with secret bank accounts in Switzerland would be a dead end, despite a burgeoning investigation into its handling by former finance minister George Papaconstantinou after the names of three of his relatives were found to have been removed. Only 20.8 percent believed the government would get to the bottom of it.
Samaras got the nod of 53.2 percent as the most appropriate choice for Prime Minister (53.2 percent), with SYRIZA’s leader Alexis Tsipras earning only 30.9 percent. Sixty-three percent of those asked would like to see the coalition government complete its four-year term, while 32.3 percent felt that early elections were in order.
Third place with 9.7% goes to neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, followed by the PASOK Socialists at 5.7%, the right-wing Independent Greeks had 5.6%, the Democratic Left 4.6 percent and the Greek Communist party KKE with 4.3%.
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