Even as SYRIZA confronted a New Democracy landslide in 2 June local election run-offs, a poll on voter intention in the 7 July general election had the ruling party trailing ND by nine percentage points, nearly the identical spread between the two top parties as in the 26 May European Parliament election.
The poll was conducted by Pulse company for SKAI television by telephone between 30 May and 1 June with 1,358 respondents. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
The survey was completed just as Evangelos Venizelos was announcing his departure from the Movement for Change (after party leader Fofi Gennimata denied him the top spot on the statewide ticket) so it did not reflect any possible impact of that development on the party.
The poll gave New Democracy a high of 36. 5 percent and a low of 31.5 percent compared to a high of 27.5 percent and a low of 22.5 percent for SYRIZA, a high of 9.5 percent and a low of 6.5 percent for the centre-left Movement for Change, a high of 6.5 percent and a low of 4.5 percent for the KKE Greek Communist Party, between four and six percent for extreme-right, neo-Nazi rooted Golden Dawn, and between three and five percent for the new far-right populist and Russophile Greek Solution (Elliniki Lysi) party.
The only other party with a chance of passing the three percent threshold for entering Parliament is former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis’ MeRa 25 (Diem 25 in other EU countries), which garners between two and four percent.
The survey showed that 69 percent of voters are convinced ND will win the parliamentary election compared to only 20 percent who said SYRIZA will prevail.