The ruling party New Democracy Conservatives of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras continue to hold a paper-thin lead over the major opposition party Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) a 0.1 percent margin that is negligible given the margin of error which means either party could be ahead.
The poll was taken by Metron Analysis on behalf of the Greek financial newspaper Ependytis that showed ND with 29.1 percent to SYRIZA’s 29 percent with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party far back at 11.7 percent.
The KKE Communists, who have been a marginal party for years, jumped into fourth with 6.9 percent, ahead of the vanishing support for the once-dominant PASOK Socialists who recorded only 6.8 percent after winning the 2009 elections with 44 percent. The Independent Greeks are sixth at 5.1 percent and the Democratic Left (DIMAR), which left Samaras’ coalition, is last at 3.1 percent.
Samaras is now in a coalition with PASOK and elevated its leader, Evangelos Venizelos, under whose leadership the party has become politically irrelevant, to Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as a reward for agreeing to go along with the firing of all 2,656 workers and the former ERT national broadcaster which the Premier ordered shut down to satsify international lenders who want the work force pared.
Despite how close their parties are in support among voters, Samaras is a runaway choice to be Prime Minister, garnering 31 percent to only 11 percent for SYRIZA leader Alexis Tspiras, burying him in the popularity contest as Tsipiras keeps demanding Greece give up the bailouts that’s all that’s keeping the economy from collapsing.
Tsipiras hasn’t offered any solutions to fix it but the most telling figure is that 40 percent of Greeks don’t want either one of them running the country although right now there aren’t any other options.
And while most Greeks are vehemently against the austerity measures Samaras and Venizelos are imposing on them, 64 percent want them to remain in power and are opposed to early elections.
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