Poll shows Greeks are more concerned about rising prices than politics

ATHENS, 28 Aug – PRIME. Greek citizens are more worried about everyday problems, rising prices and a difficult winter ahead than the phone-tapping scandal of politicians and journalists, although the scandal has taken a toll on the ruling party’s ratings, opinion polls show.

The surveillance case in Greece has turned into a major political scandal. It turned out that the secret service tapped the phone of an opposition politician, a former member of the European Parliament, Nikos Androulakis, during the period when he applied for the post of leader of the PASOK-KINAL party. The ruling New Democracy party was interested in electing his opponent as chairman of the party, with whom a coalition was not ruled out. They also listened to the journalist Tanasis Koukakis. The head of the Greek intelligence service EYP Panagiotis Kontoleon and the secretary general of the prime minister (head of the government administration), the prime minister’s nephew Grigoris Dimitriadis were fired. In the Greek Parliament on August 26, hours of debate took place on the issue of surveillance.

“The interest of citizens is focused on the problems of everyday life: 84.2% are concerned about the wave of high prices and the difficult winter that is approaching not only in Greece, but throughout the world. National problems and challenges in Turkey are of concern to 36.4% of citizens, and crime and violence – 30.2% of respondents. Events in Ukraine worry 26.3% of citizens, and only 16% are interested and worried about wiretapping, “says a survey by MARC commissioned by the Proto Tema newspaper.

The poll was conducted on August 22-25, before the parliamentary debate on the issue. 1001 people across the country were surveyed. According to the results of the poll, the ruling New Democracy party is supported by 32% of respondents compared to 32.5% in the poll of the same company in July, the opposition Radical Left Coalition SYRIZA 23.5% of respondents (in July it was 23%), PASOK-KINAL 12.3% instead of 11.8%. The Communist Party of Greece received support from 5.4% of respondents compared to 5.5% in July, the right-wing Greek Solution party 5% instead of 4.8%, the MERA25 party – 3% instead of 2.8%. 49.9% of respondents preferred to see the current Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis as prime minister, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras – 33.6% of respondents. Only 38% believe the government should resign if the allegations of wiretapping are confirmed.

“Limited losses for the ruling faction and modest gains for the opposition parties show the results of the opinion poll. It, while recognizing the seriousness of the problem of surveillance that remains at the center of the news, continues to turn its attention to the big issues of high cost and price increases that are expected to bring difficult winter is coming.Thus, at the beginning of the new political season, when most of the citizens are still on vacation or in holiday mood, the results of the poll show little change in the structure of the political scene at the moment, as the leadership of the “New Democracy” remains on the level of previous elections, as well as the undeniable superiority of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, both in terms of popularity and suitability for the post of prime minister,” writes the Proto Tema newspaper.

A GPO poll for Ta Nea showed a slightly larger loss of votes for New Democracy. When asked who they intend to vote for, 31.4% choose New Democracy (compared to 33.1% in the February 7 poll), and 25.1% choose SYRIZA (up from 24.2%). PASOK garners 12.1% of the vote (up from 11.1%), followed by the KKE with 5.7% (up from 5.8%), the Hellenic Regente with 4.8% (up from 4.6) and MERA25, which is gaining 2.1% instead of 2.3% in February. To get into parliament, you need to collect more than 3% of the votes. Thus, the difference between New Democracy and SYRIZA is 6.3 percentage points. Between the two leaders, 42.7% prefer Mitsotakis to the post of prime minister, 32.0% prefer Tsipras, “none of the two” — 24.7%.

In terms of the popularity of political leaders, Kyriakos Mitsotakis remains first with 48.3%, followed by Nikos Androulakis with 41.5% and then comes Alexis Tsipras with 37.2%. “However, the prime minister’s image has deteriorated, as negative opinions exceeded 50% (51.1%),” Ta Nea notes. Respondents put the problem of listening in third place in terms of importance after the increase in electricity tariffs and the general high cost. It outstripped in importance such topics as Greek-Turkish relations, the migration problem and the pandemic, the newspaper writes.

The survey was conducted on August 22-24 throughout Greece, polling 1,000 people.