While Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is crowing that he has saved Greece from leaving the Eurozone by securing a first series of 52.5 billion euros ($68.94 billion) in new rescue loans from international lenders, a vast majority of Greeks still believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.
The good news – relatively speaking, of course – is that more believe than just a few months ago that the country can now survive its crushing economic crisis. A poll conducted by Public Issue on behalf of the newspaper Kathimerini and SKAI TV between Dec. 6-10, before the loan deal was secured, showed that 19 percent said that the country was on the right track, against 75 percent who believed it wasn’t. The same figures stood at 5 percent and 88 percent, respectively, in a similar poll carried out last June.
Fourteen percent of those asked said that the country’s position was now stronger internationally, while 56 percent of respondents considered a Greek default impossible. At the same time, 41 percent felt that decisions reached by the Eurogroup last month would have a negative impact on Greece, while 29 percent thought they would have a positive effect. Those against the memoranda with Greece’s lenders stood at 69 percent while those in favor of Greece signing bailout agreements with its partners and creditors came to 22 percent.
Meanwhile, 60 percent of those questioned believed that the SYRIZA coalition would prevail in the case of snap elections, compared to 25 percent who saw New Democracy as the winner.
According to the poll, in case of elections the SYRIZA coalition would garner 30.5 percent of the vote, followed by New Democracy (26 percent), extreme right-wing Golden Dawn (10.5 percent), Independent Greeks (9 percent), Socialist PASOK (8 percent), Democratic Left (6.5 percent) and the Greek Communist Party, KKE (5.5 percent. The majority of those asked, 65 percent, thought that new elections were not necessary, compared to 31 percent who believed they were.
As in a previous poll in November, no politician got more than 50 percent vote, although Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis, whose party is in the coalition with the PASOK Socialists supporting Samaras’ ruling New Democracy Conservatives, got 49 percent.
The major opposition party SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras was next at 44 percent, followed by Samaras at 40 percent, tied with Independent Greek’s leader Panos Kammenos. In a head-to-head comparison, Samaras easily beat Tsipras, 40-29 percent.
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