Greek polls: pro-austerity parties gaining

Surveys show that voters want Greece to keep the euro and not revert to the drachma

Three weeks before Greece has another election, opinion polls published indicated the election will result in no single party gaining a majority in parliament, but two parties that favor implementing Greece's bailout programs could be able to form a coalition government.

The four surveys show that Greek voters, tired of more than two years of austerity that have seen salaries and pensions cut and new taxes imposed, nonetheless want Greece to keep the euro and not revert to its own currency, the drachma.

The polls were published yesterday in the To Vima, Real News, Proto Thema and Eleftheros Typos newspapers.

The polls indicate that pro-bailout New Democracy party and anti-bailout Syriza would probably finish first and second again, but that New Democracy would win more seats in parliament than during the May 6 national election, allowing it to team up with Socialist PASOK in a governing coalition.

Voters angry at austerity measures had given both the conservatives and socialists a drubbing on May 6, dropping them to historical lows.

The socialists, winners of the previous election in 2009 dropped from 43.9% to 13.2% of the vote and third place, while the conservatives won but saw their vote drop from 33.5% to 18.9%.

Syriza, the main beneficiary of the protest vote, jumped from fifth place and 4.6% in 2009 to second and 16.7%.

The polls show New Democracy ahead of Syriza from 0.5 to 5.7%, reversing a trend in recent opinion polls in which Syriza was seen as the front-runner.

Both New Democracy and Syriza are expected to poll well above 20% while the third-place socialists are halting their slide and smaller parties are squeezed.

The polls also estimate that New Democracy and the socialists will have a combined 159 to 165 seats in the 300-member parliament, up from 149 in the outgoing one, allowing them to form a pro-bailout, pro-austerity government.

They could conceivably be joined by the Democratic Left, which is projected to elect from 13 to 16 deputies, down from 19. All three parties want a partial renegotiation of the bailout deal to boost economic growth, while Syriza has called for immediate repudiation.