Galery

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The vote on the new austerity measures and budget cuts in 2013 has reduced the number of Greeks who support the two ruling coalition partners - New Democracy and PASOK, as shown by the results of a poll conducted by GPO agency.

When asked for whom they would vote in the case of new elections, the participants placed the parties in the following order:

SYRIZA - 22.3%, New Democracy - 20.1%, Golden Dawn - 10.3%, PASOK - 7.5%, independent Greeks - 6.5%, Democratic Left -5%, Greek Communist Party - 4.6%. 4.4% said they would vote for another party, 10.2% did not specify for whom they would vote, while 9.1% said they would vote with invalid or white ballot or simply would not vote.

Despite the leading position of SYRIZA, 27.8% of respondents claim they consider Prime Minister Antonis Samaras the most appropriate. The second favourite answer is 'nobody', supported by 25.2% of voters in the poll. The leader of the Radical Left, Alexis Tsipras, is in third place with 18.6%. Next are Evangelos Venizelos (PASOK) with 8%, Fotis Kouvelis (Democratic Left) with 6.7%, Panos Kamenos (Independent Greeks) with 5.7%, Nikos Mihaloliakos (Golden Dawn) with 3.8% and Aleka Papariga (Communist Party) with 1.7%.

The difference between the leaders of New Democracy and SYRIZA becomes even clearer when posing the question of which of them is the most appropriate to govern Greece. In this case, the support for Antonis Samaras is 44.5% against 33% for Alexis Tsipras.

The highest number of people - 43.9% - approve the position of Democratic Left’s leader Fotis Kouvelis followed by Antonis Samaras - 40.3%, Alexis Tsipras - 37.8%, Panos Kamenos - 33.1%, Evangelos Venizelos - 28%, Aleka Papariga - 26.6% and Nikos Mihaloliakos - 16.8%.

Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras receives a very high percentage of positive assessments not only in comparison with his predecessors in the ministry but among Greek politicians in general. The positive votes for him are 43.6% against 51.5% negative.

62.9% of participants consider the actions of Antonis Samaras’ government negative / rather negative. Positive / rather positive is the opinion of 36.1% of respondents.

According to 43.9%, the government did not carry out any negotiations with the representatives of the supervisory Troika and accepted unconditionally all the issues. 40% believe that Antonis Samaras and the ministers did negotiate, but did not achieve significant results. Only 14.6% of respondents believe that the government did the best for Greece.

They describe the changes in their lives over the past three years as follows:

- 13.5% are at an impasse because they have no income

- The income of 54.9% has decreased dramatically, resulting in a struggle to meet basic needs

- Another 29.1% also report reduction in their income, but they are able to cope financially

- 2% do not report any drop in income

The shock of the new austerity measures has substantially reduced the support for the forces in favour of the euro compared to the previous poll the agency conducted in May. Asked whether Greece should remain in the euro zone at any cost, 62.7% of participants reply positively and 33.9% give a negative answer. The corresponding rates in May were 80.9% against 18%.

The vast majority of Greeks - 83.3% - believe that the measures adopted last week will not be the last ones and only 15.2% are convinced that this process has been completed.

That the measures adopted will not stabilize the economy is the opinion of 77.9% of respondents. At the same time, 21.1% are optimistic and believe that the economic contraction will stop.

71.2% of respondents oppose early elections and only 28.2% support this alternative.

In parallel, however, the reduced percentage of government partners, New Democracy, PASOK and Democratic Left, makes 61.6% believe that the government will not complete its four-year term whereas 35.9% think that it will manage to complete it.

According to 43.1% of respondents, the situation in the country would worsen if SYRIZA took the power. 21.8% believe that it would improve if the far left were in power and 26.7% are of the opinion that there would be no significant difference.

Even if SYRIZA were in power, Greece would remain in the euro area, is indicated by 50.8% and 40% fear that the country would leave the European currency.

73.9% of respondents claim that the radical left is not ready to govern against 23.7% who believe the opposite.

61.9% of respondents are of the opinion that the ruling coalition is the only option for Greece, while 35.3% think that another government could survive as well.

Slightly more than half of the respondents - 50.4% - believe that the government needs repairing, while 35.8% do not believe that reshuffling is pressing.