The recent Greece-FYROM naming agreement appears to have widened New Democracy’s longstanding lead over SYRIZA to 12.5 percentage points, according to a Pulse polling company survey conducted for SKAI television.
The poll indicates that the accord is rejected by a large segment of SYRIZA’s base and has served to rally the base of support of New Democracy, which from the start has categorically opposed the agreement.
The poll was conducted between 24 and 26 June, just three days after the Eurogroup decision on debt relieve for Greece, which the government depicted as the key milestone for exiting the bailout memorandum.
More specifically, 34 percent of respondents said they would vote for New Democracy, and 21.5 percent for SYRIZA. The extreme right Golden Dawn party and the centre-left movement for changes were tied, with 7.5 percent each.
The Greek Communist Party (KKE) garnered six percent. The Centrists’ Union was supported by 2.5 percent and the Independent Greeks (the junior partner in the coalition government) by 1.5 percent, both below the three percent threshold needed to enter parliament.
When asked which party they thought will win the next elections, over twice as many voters replied that it will be New Democracy (58 percent), compared to 23 percent for SYRIZA.
Regarding the Eurogroup debt relief package, 49 percent were negative about the agreement, and 37 percent viewed it positively.
As for the FYROM-Greece naming agreement, 62 percent of respondents viewed it negatively, and 27 percent viewed it positively.
Over half of SYRIZA’s voters in the September, 2015 elections saw the FYROM agreement as positive (51 percent) – 34 percent were “certainly positive” about the accord, and 17 percent said “probably positive”.
Of New Democracy voters in the same election, 70 percent saw the agreement as “certainly negative”, 16 percent as “probably negative”. Only four percent saw the accord as “probably positive”.
As for when the next general election will be held, 51 percent of respondents believe it will be in 2019 (25 percent in the first half of the year and 26 percent in the second half), and 38 percent said it will be before the end of 2018.
