A recent public opinion poll has showed that main opposition party, left-wing SYRIZA keeps falling in voters’ preference to levels below the 18% of the summer elections.
One of the reasons is that the new leader Stefanos Kasselakis has turned into a rather a-politic life-style figure, while the open “civil war” with his opponents within the party has many left-wing voters to turn their back to they party – at least, for now.
According to the poll conducted by GPS on behalf of Star TV, respondents said they would vote for:
- New Democracy 36.6%
- SYRIZA 12.9%
- PASOK/KINAL 11.9%
- Communist KKE 8.5%
- populist Greek Solution 5.4%
- far-right Spartans 3.5%
.Another far right party, Niki, which has a Christian fundamentalist slant, would fail to be represented in Parliament again, with 2.5% of the vote intentions, as would populist left-wing Sailing for Freedom (2.3%).
Asked who is best suited to be Prime Minister, poll respondents chose current PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis (48.0%) over socialist leader Nikos Androulakis (13.8%) and new SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis (12.1%), while 18.1% respondent “none.”
Mitsotakis is the only political leader for whom favorable opinions outscore, barely, unfavorable ones (50.4% to 49.1%). He is closely trailed by the Communist Party’s Dimitris Koutsoumbas (47% favorable, 48.3% unfavorable). They are followed by Androulakis (41.5% versus 54.5%), Zoi Konstantopoulou of Sailing for Freedom (31.7% vs. 64.6%), Kasselakis (24.3% to 70.5%) and Greek Solution’s Kyriakos Velopoulos (22.9% to 73.4%), with the leaders of the Spartans and Niki bringing up the rear.
Asked where they would place Kasselakis on the political spectrum, respondents said at:
- 6.1% on the left
- 17.4% on the center-left
- 15.6% on the center
- 17% on the center-right
- 14.3% on the right
- 20.2% responded “none of the above”
These result give credence to his vociferous critics within the party who accuse Kasselakis of having no discernible ideology and of trying to pull SYRIZA away from the left.
Among SYRIZA voters alone, however, 77.7% believe the party is moving in the right direction under his leadership and 76.2% say the critics do not contribute to party unity. A slight plurality (48.6%) say Kasselakis’ opponents should stay within the party and criticize while 43% said they must leave.
The poll was published on October 25, 2023.
