A recent opinion poll conducted by Public Issue for the daily newspaper Avgi shows that the Greek Prime Minister and SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras’ popularity has reached an impressive 78%, while 63% of those questioned are in support of the government’s negotiation strategy. At the same time, 55% of the Greeks are approving the Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who has lately gained publicity both within Greece and abroad. Those disapproving the government’s handling in the negotiations with the country’s creditors consist of 28% of the public opinion, while 3% do not take sides and 6% have no opinion on the matter. Moreover, 82% of the respondents say the feeling the government’s negotiating stance gave them is “national pride,” although 39% believe the winners in this tie are the lenders. Similarly, 22% see the negotiations as a win-win case, 21% say no side has benefited and only 14% believe that Greece is coming out on top. Regarding Greece’s outspoken Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, 55% of respondents say they trust him as the chief negotiator, while 43% do not. The Finance Minister’s popularity, though, has dropped 4% compared to the previous month. Asked about the party leaders and their suitability for the premiership, 62% see Mr. Tsipras as the most appropriate, against only 20% of former Prime Minister and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras. Specifically, the second most popular political leader is the National Defense Minister and junior coalition government partner Independent Greeks (ANEL) leader, Panos Kammenos with 46%, followed by To Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis with 45%, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) secretary-general Dimitris Koutsoumpas with 35%, Antonis Samaras with 28%, PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos with 19% and neo-nazi inspired Golden Dawn — recently released from custody — leader Nikos Michaloliakos with only 9%.
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