The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his government are preparing to move to the second half of their term with the best omens.
Two years after the election victory of July 7, 2019, the lead over SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras is widening, as the citizens evaluate positively the actions of the last 24 months.
The findings of a large poll conducted by Marc on behalf of Proto Thema are revealing, as they show that the decline of the pandemic leads to a gradual increase in the optimism of the citizens, who express their support for the current Prime Minister and his government and their will to exhaust the four years of their term.
In addition to the undisputed dominance they enjoy among self-proclaimed right-wing and center-right voters, Mr Mitsotakis and his party are expanding their influence to center-wing voters as well.
The areas of government policy in which the majority of the public puts a negative rating, are Immigration, Citizens’ Security, Education, but also Labor, which was recently in the forefront of the news.
However, the balance of evaluation of the government actions is positive.
In general, however, and with the exception of the retreat of SYRIZA forces, during the last two years the political scene remains rather unchanged. New Democracy moves around 40%, gathering in this poll 37.6% (+ 1.2% from the previous one). The official opposition stands above 20%, having in this poll 21.2% (+ 0.2% from the previous one). While the other parties are at the same levels and maintain the same position they had in 2019. KINAL is the third party with 6.4% (-0.4%), in fourth place remains the KKE with 5,5% (+ 0.1%) followed by Hellenic Solution with 3.5% (-0.8%) and MERA25 with 3% (+ 0.1%).
The percentage of undecided is 12.9% and their origin is not one-dimensional, as one might have guessed due to the fall of the official opposition. Only 38.4% of voters are from SYRIZA, while 29.9% of them are from the current ruling party.
For 11 years, the Soviet Union had no weekends
According to the survey, Mr. Mitsotakis is by far the most popular political leader, as he has the positive opinion of 55.6% of respondents. In second place is Mr. Tsipras with 31.2%, third is Fofi Gennimata with 27.6%, who is ahead of Dimitris Koutsoumbas with 27.2%. Yanis Varoufakis follows with 23.9% and the list closes with Kyriakos Velopoulos, who is at 14.5%.
In the direct comparison with his predecessor as to who is the best Prime Minister, the supremacy of Mr. Mitsotakis becomes even clearer, since he is chosen by 53.4%, compared to the 25.8% who choose the leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras.
Public opinion overwhelmingly expresses its “support” for the government, as this word is preferred by 35.2% when asked about it. In addition, a percentage of 22.4% states that the most appropriate word to express their feelings is “tolerance”. On the other hand, 21.8% express “frustration” and 19.1% “anger”.
Vaccinations
According to the poll, two out of three citizens, or 64.8%, are in favor of the idea that vaccination should be mandatory for certain categories of citizens, such as health workers, nursing home workers, police officers and those who come in general in contact with vulnerable groups.
In contrast, 32.6% of respondents were against compulsory vaccinations of these groups. The most ardent supporters of compulsory vaccinations are older people (78.8% over 65 years old), private sector workers (62.2%), as well as those who voted New Democracy (76.1%) and even more those who supported KINAL in the last elections (87.3%).
More restrained are people of younger ages (from 17-44 years, 44.5% say “no” expressing opposition to the mandatory vaccinations), the civil servants (44.4% say “no”), as well as to those who vote for SYRIZA (41.4%) or KKE (39.3%).
