Rass poll: ND support remains solid, compared to weakening SYRIZA; gap widens

The latest opinion poll results released on Monday, now less than a week before a repeat general election on June 25, show a whopping 23.4-percentage-point lead by incumbent New Democracy (ND) party over rival SYRIZA.

The poll was conducted by the Rass firm and presented by Athens-Piraeus regional broadcaster Action24.

Specifically, center-right ND is preferred by 40.2 percent of respondents, a figure slightly down from the 40.8 percent it actually polled in the recent May 21 election.

The increased difference, however, comes from an ostensible decline in voters’ support for leftist SYRIZA, which is given 16.8 in this poll, down from 20.1 in the recent election.

Social democrat PASOK remains fixed in third place with 11.5 percent, with the Communist Party (KKE) at 7.6 percent.

A six-party Parliament emerges from these poll results, with the right-wing and Euro-skeptic Elliniki Lysi (Hellenic Solution) shown as returning to the legislature by polling 3.8 percent, as the threshold for entering Parliament 3 percent of the general vote (of valid ballots). The radical left party established by former Parliament president Zoe Konstantopoulou also appears as exceeding 3 percent, with the latter’s support gauged at 3.7 percent.

In a result that remains unchanged since January 2016, incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is deemed as most suitable for prime minister by 51.4 percent of respondents, compared to SYRIZA leader and former premier Alexis Tsipras, who comes in third with 20 percent. The answer “neither of the two” was preferred by 26.1 percent of respondents.