Ruling ND, Mitsotakis retain lead in latest opinion poll, despite negative fallout from recent snow storm gridlock

Ruling New Democracy (ND) party continues to field a comfortable lead over other parties in the latest opinion poll unveiled on Monday in Greece, even despite public opinion anger and frustration with the handing of a recent snow storm in the country, which more-or-less paralyzed the greater Athens area for at least a couple of days last week.

A majority of respondents forecast that center-right ND will win the next general election whenever it is held. Meanwhile, when asked which political leader best expresses the so-called political “center”, Prime Minister and ND president Kyriakos Mitsotakis comes in first; followed by the answer “no one”. The recently elected president of the social-democrat KINAL grouping, MEP Nikos Androulakis, is third, with former premier and leftist SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras coming in a disappointing fourth.

Queried about measures and restrictions to combat the spread of the Covid-19 virus, 62 percent of respondents said they were against a relaxation at this point.

Specifically, the poll conducted by the Pulse firm and presented on the prime-time newscast of Athens-based broadcaster Skai, showed ND leading main opposition SYRIZA by10 percentage points, based on an extrapolation of valid responses.

In terms of numbers, ND is calculated as pooling 32.5 percent of voters’ preferences if an election was held next Sunday; leftist SYRIZA is given 22.5 percent, while KINAL has almost doubled its tally from a few months earlier, now coming in at 14.5 percent.

The level of undecided voters is calculated at 8.5 percent.

Asked which party they believe will win the next election, regardless of which party they will vote for, 56 percent of the poll respondents selected ND; 21 percent picked SYRIZA and 12 percent answered “other”.