Over 80% of Greeks reject exit from euro
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E-mail Xinhua, May 31, 2012
About 80.9 percent of Greeks believe Greece should struggle to stay within the eurozone "at any cost," fresh opinion polls showed on Wednesday.
Some 45.4 percent of respondents in a survey conducted by GPO firm for local private television Mega channel said that they regarded as most probable a Greek exit from the European common currency. And 48.4 percent of the respondents said that such a prospect was less likely.
About 77.8 percent expect the next government to emerge from the June 17 general elections to renegotiate the harsh austerity terms of the two bailout deals reached since May 2010 with international lenders to avoid a disorderly default.
According to the GPO survey, conservative New Democracy (ND) party that ranked first in the first inconclusive May 6 polls with some 19 percent of the vote, suggesting a mild review of the deals with other EU countries and International Monetary Fund creditors, leads ahead of the new elections with 23.4 percent.
The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) that ranked second with approximately 17 percent of the vote in the first elections, leading the harsh anti-bailout forces, is estimated to garner 22.1 percent.
The two parties could seek partners to form a coalition government amongst parties such as the socialists of PASOK who are estimated to win 13.5 percent, and Democratic Left that is expected to garner 5.1 percent.
Both parties advocate a mild compromise with creditors, while the nationalist Independent Greeks garnering 7.4 percent and the Communist Party forecast at 5.9 percent support a more hard anti-bailout line, like SYRIZA.
According to GPO, the new seven-party parliament will also include the neo-fascist "Chryssi Avgi" (Golden Dawn) party that is expected to win 4.2 percent of the vote.
A second survey conducted by VPRC firm for Greek magazine Epikaira (Miscellaneous) showed a similar picture, with SYRIZA slightly leading the race with 30 percent of voters preference, followed by ND with 26.5 percent and PASOK with 12.5 percent.
Greece is kept afloat with multi-billion-euro aid packages from international lenders over the past two years in exchange of a tough austerity and reform program to overcome the debt crisis that threatens the country with a chaotic bankruptcy and an exit from the euro that could destabilize the entire eurozone and hit global economy.
Uncertainty over the economic policy that the new government will follow after the upcoming elections, in particular if anti-bailout parties take office, has boosted scenarios of a Greek financial collapse and exit from euro.
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