More than seven in 10 respondents in the most recent opinion poll in Greece this week, conducted by the MRB firm, consider that there’s no formidable political opposition at present facing the conservative New Democracy (ND) government. At the same time, one in two respondents expresses concern over such a perceived absence of a political opposition.
Based on the average results of four opinion polls released this month, ruling ND pools 30.55% in terms of voters’ intent, while socialist PASOK-KINAL is now in second place with 11.15%, overtaking leftist SYRIZA by “a hair”. The latter party falls to 11%, when the averages of the four poll results are tallied.
As it stands, the figure gives ND a 19.4-percentage point lead over its nearest rival, months after back-to-back elections in May and June 2023.
A second main conclusion drawn from the four polls this month is a distinct lack of momentum for SYRIZA after newcomer Stefanos Kasselakis replaced Alexis Tsipras last September. Tsipras, a leftist maverick who served as prime minister between 2015 and 2019, resigned after loosing consecutive elections since the latter year to current Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Kasselakis won a contentious internal party election over a handful of diehard leftist and veteran politicians to succeed Tsipras.
SYRIZA has continued to drop in the polls since September and, in fact, has seen 11 of its Parliament deputies quit the party the process.
The Communist Party (KKE) remains in fourth place, with its four-poll average at 7.3%.
Conversely, the new formation established by the resigned SYRIZA MPs and other top cadres, called “New Left”, also appears as unappealing to voters since its debut. The new party is given 2.6%, a figure under the 3% threshold (of the valid general vote) for sending candidates to Brussels in next year’s European Parliament election.
The four polls conducted this month were by Realpolls, MRB, Interview and GPO.
