Conservative New Democracy leads in Greek vote polls

Greek pro-bailout conservative party New Democracy is favorite to secure most seats in the June 17 general elections but without an outright majority, a series of opinion polls showed Sunday. New polls predict a New Democracy victory ranging between 23.3 percent and 25.8 percent, a result that would require the party to seek additional allies to form a viable government. Radical left party Syriza, which rejects the austerity measures which Athens agreed to in return for a second EU-IMF debt rescue package, comes in at second place in the prevote polls ahead of the Pasok socialists, who also back the bailout agreement. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras set two conditions when asked in an interview with whom he would be willing to form a coalition government if his party emerges in first place. “With whoever accepts two basic matters; change in the loan agreement and to remain in the euro,” Samaras said in an interview to Real News Sunday. The conservative leader did not rule out cooperating with the radical Syriza head Alexis Tsipras if he agrees to these conditions. The opinion polls were carried out by MRB, Pulse RC, Alco, Marc and Kapa Research for newspapers Real News, Typos tis Kyriakis, Proto Thema, Ethnos and To Vima respectively. The Marc poll, which was carried out on 1,075 households on May 22-24, also showed that 82.4 percent of the Greeks wish to stay in the eurozone. New Democracy would garnish 121 to 123 places in the 300-seat parliament and Syriza 66 to 68 according to the Alco opinion poll of 1,000 adults conducted between May 20-25. In the MRB poll, 17.2 percent of those surveyed judged Antonis Samaras, the “most suitable” person to lead the country, against 16.3 percent for Alexis Tsipras. Fed up with two years of salary and pension cuts, Greek voters on May 6 punished larger parties associated with the bailout and catapulted Syriza to second place, piling pressure on Samaras to reinvigorate his party. No party was able to form a coalition as a result of that election, forcing the rerun vote next month.