ND increases lead over SYRIZA in latest poll, 7 weeks before general elex

The latest opinion poll published in Greece over the weekend – seven weeks before a May 21 general election – shows an opening of the gap between ruling New Democracy (ND) and main opposition SYRIZA party.

The poll was commission by the Athens weekly and news web portal Proto Thema and conducted by the Marc firm between March 27 and March 30, on a sample of 1,213 respondents.

Specifically, center-right ND fields a 5.3-percentage point lead over leftist SYRIZA, with the difference up from 4.6 percentage points cited in the opinion poll by the same firm last month. Based on results of the poll, ND is shown recovering 1.3 points from the 2.9 points it lost in the wake of the deadly Tempi train collision on the evening of Feb. 28.

Based on an extrapolation of the valid responses, ND picks up 31.7 percent of respondents’ preferences, followed by SYRIZA with 26.4 percent. The latter is the best performance by SYRIZA in a Marc opinion poll since December 2021.

Socialist PASOK remains firmly in third place, but now consistently below the double-digit mark, picking up 9.5 percent.

The eyebrow-raising result, however, in yet another opinion poll – regardless of firm or commissioning mass media outlet – is the high percentage of support for a newly formed extreme-right and nationalist party founded by jailed one-time Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) lieutenant and MP Ilias Kasidiaris.

The latter, called National Party of Greeks, is shown picking up 3.7 percent of respondents’ preferences, up in fact, by 0.7 percentage points from last month’s showing.

The presence of the specific party in the upcoming election will be decided by Greece’s supreme court, in the wake of recent legislation to ban political parties led by convicted felons.