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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

SYRIZA Leads New Poll; Support for Euro at 71%

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the ruling coalition’s leading party SYRIZA retained a clear lead over the opposition, according to a poll conducted by Public Issue and published in the Sunday edition of the newspaper “Avgi”. Estimated voter support for SYRIZA was more than double that for runner-up New Democracy at 48.5 pct, compared with 21 pct for ND, 6 pct for the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), 6 pct for far-right Golden Dawn, 5.5 pct for Potami, 4 pct for PASOK, 3.5 pct for junior coalition partner Independent Greeks (ANEL) and 5.5 pct for other parties. Support for the government’s stance in the negotiations was expressed by 54 pct, while 37 pct disagreed, and 56 pct were in favour of a ratification of any agreement by Parliament compared with 34 pct that favoured ratification by referendum. A further 37 pct said that the Greek government must back down in the negotiations, while 58 pct said it should not give in. On individual aspects of the negotiations, 89 pct were against any reduction in main pensions, 81 pct opposed removing restrictions on mass lay offs, 79 pct opposed reduction in supplementary pensions, 57 pct opposed retaining the Uniform Real Estate Ownership Tax, 52 pct were against imposing a single VAT rate of 18 pct, and 43 pct opposed privatisation of regional airports. The prime minister retained high levels of popularity at 77 pct, with 63 pct judging him most suitable for prime minister, compared with just 20 pct for ND leader Antonis Samaras, whose popularity was at 28 pct. On levels of satisfaction with the operation of the government, roughly 44 pct were still satisfied, with roughly 55 pct dissatisfied. Dissatisfaction with the operation of the opposition parties, by contrast, was running at roughly 88 pct, with a mere 11 pct expressing satisfaction. Public opinion on the European Union was split, with 50 pct having a negative opinion and 48 pct having a positive opinion and 2 pct expressing no opinion. Support for remaining in the euro in the case of a referendum continued to be strong at 71 pct, with 25 pct against and 4 pct expressing no opinion. Support for a return to the drachma, by contrast, stood at 19 pct, whereas 68 pct considered that a return to the drachma will probably make things worse, 10 pct considered that it would make no difference and 3 pct had no opinion. (source: ana-mpa)


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com