Ruling New Democracy (ND) fields a 10-percentage-point lead over PASOK in the latest opinion poll results released on Wednesday, with the latter now officially the main opposition party in Parliament after more MP defections weakened leftist SYRIZA.
The conservative ruling party picks up 24% of respondents’ preference in the latest Pulse poll, presented during the prime-time newscast of Athens-based Skai TV on Wednesday evening. With an extrapolation of the results ND extends its lead over socialist/social democrat PASOK by 12.5 percentage points.
At the same time, ND’s voter approval ratings appear as slipping, albeit gradually, as the party lost half a percentage point from the last poll by the same firm last month.
PASOK has now entrenched itself in second place, pooling 14% of respondents’ preferences, up from 13% last month.
Nearly 10 years after riding to power atop a rabidly anti-bailout and anti-austerity platform and “radical left” credentials, SYRIZA now finds itself in fourth place in the specific opinion poll with 6.5%. The party has endured two internal splits since its convincing defeat in the last general election last year, while some MPs left the party but remained as independents in parliament.
The Communist Party (KKE) is in third place with 7.5%, while the right-wing and Eurosceptic Elliniki Lysi party shared fourth place with SYRIZA, 6.5%.
Two out-of-Parliament formations appear as entering Parliament if elections were held next Sunday, both given 4% in the latest Pulse poll. A party must exceed a 3% threshold of the vote in a general election (of valid ballots) to enter Greece’s 300-deputy parliament.
The first is a brand-new party established and unveiled last weekend by ousted SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis, while the other is a hard conservative and nationalist party created over the past year by MEP Aphrodite Latinopoulou, with which she was elected as its sole representative in the European Parliament election last July.
The undecided vote in the poll was calculated at 15%.
In terms of the recent expulsion of former prime minister and ND leader Antonis Samaras from the party last week, results of the opinion poll show that it had a negligent on respondents who said they favor New Democracy.
