Greece’s anti-bailout leftists lead in polls
ATHENS, May 13 — Greece's radical leftist SYRIZA party has gained support since today's inconclusive election to become the most popular party, but backing for the anti-bailout group is falling, the second opinion poll since the vote showed yesterday.
The main pro-bailout parties, conservative New Democracy and socialist PASOK, were gaining support, according to the poll by Metron Analysis for the Epenenditis weekly.
Greece's political landscape is in disarray after voters humiliated the only parties backing an international bailout keeping the country afloat, leaving no bloc with enough seats to form a government to secure the next tranche of aid.
Backing for SYRIZA stood at 25.5 per cent - almost 9 points up on its Sunday result, but down from 27.7 per cent in the previous poll on May 10. New Democracy gained slightly, rising to 21.7 per cent from 20.3 per cent, while PASOK came third with 14.6 per cent, up from 12.6 per cent.
Support for ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party, which gained an unprecedented 7 per cent of votes in the election, fell to 4.7 per cent, still above the 3 per cent threshold needed to get into parliament.
The leaders of the first three parties have all failed to come up with a proposal to form a government.
In a last-ditch attempt to cobble together a coalition, President Karolos Papoulias will summon the leaders of all parties that made it into parliament in a process that could take days.
According to the poll, SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras is the most popular candidate for prime minister with 19 per cent of votes. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras came second with 14 per cent, while only 11 per cent of voters think PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos is suitable to lead the country.
In a separate poll by Kappa Research for To Vima daily, the gap between New Democracy and SYRIZA narrowed, with the parties scoring 18.1 per cent and 20.5 per cent respectively.
It also showed that an overwhelming majority of 78.1 per cent want the new government to do whatever it takes to keep their country in the euro. — Reuters
