FORMER Greek premier Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party’s lead in the polls is narrowing, a survey showed on Saturday, suggesting momentum may be shifting towards the opposition as the country counts down to a snap election next month.
The gap between Syriza and the conservative New Democracy party dipped to just 1.8 percentage points, with increasing numbers criticising Tsipras’s decision to call the vote, according to the MRB poll for weekly Agora newspaper.
The election, confirmed by presidential decree on Friday for September 20, was building up to be “a thriller from a polling viewpoint,” the paper said.
Syriza led other parties by as much as 15.2 percentage points in May, but the gap has been gradually whittled down since. The MRB poll gave the party 24.6 per cent against 22.8 per cent for New Democracy.
The equivalent figures in a ProRata poll published for Friday’s Efimerida Ton Syntakton newspaper were 23 per cent and 19.5 per cent. The ProRata survey was the first since Tsipras abruptly resigned as prime minister last week, days after clinching an €86bn bailout package from international lenders, hoping to crush a rebellion by far-left lawmakers and tighten his grip on power. But that decision has gone down badly with voters, with 64 per cent of the ProRata sample disapproving and 68.6 per cent of the MRB respondents.
MRB found that the breakaway Popular Unity party, formed last week by Syriza rebels who oppose the bailout, was backed by 4.2 per cent – above the 3 per cent threshold needed to enter parliament. But the right-wing Independent Greeks, the ally in Tsipras’ former coalition government, scored 2.3 per cent, meaning Syriza would be forced to seek another coalition partner.
Both polls suggest Syriza has next to no chance of winning an overall majority, though Tsipras this week ruled out cooperating with the main pro-euro opposition parties – New Democracy, the Socialist PASOK and the centrist To Potami.
If Syriza is returned as the biggest party and Tsipras does not change his view, that points to a second round of elections.
The far-right Golden Dawn ranked third in the MRB poll with 6.2 per cent, followed by centrist Potami at 5.6 per cent.
The poll, based on a sample of 1,008 participants countrywide between August 25 and 27, showed that 75.4 per cent of Greeks believe the country must stay in the euro, though nearly 73 per cent also had a negative view of the new rescue package negotiated by Tsipras.
