A majority of Greek voters are dissatisfied with the government's performance, yet no opposition figure has emerged capable of converting that discontent into a decisive challenge to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, according to a new Alco poll released this week.
The survey found that 55 percent of respondents were not satisfied at all with the government's record, with only 22 percent fairly satisfied and a further 22 percent slightly satisfied.
Yet when asked which political figure best understands society's problems, Mr. Mitsotakis led decisively at 23 percent — well ahead of former prime minister Alexis Tsipras at 12 percent, PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis at 7 percent and Communist Party secretary general Dimitris Koutsoumbas at 4 percent.
Maria Karystianou, whose entry into politics has rattled the opposition landscape in recent months, and Greek Solution leader Kyriakos Velopoulos each registered 3 percent.
Course of Freedom leader Zoe Konstantopoulou and Voice of Reason founder Afroditi Latinopoulou both came in at 2 percent.
The picture that emerges is one of deep voter frustration with no clear outlet. New Democracy retains its lead in part because the opposition vote is being carved up among multiple competing formations — PASOK, the Tsipras movement, Karystianou's nascent party and a cluster of smaller protest vehicles all drawing from the same pool of disaffected voters.
The poll also found that 51 percent of respondents disagreed with the court ruling that briefly freed November 17 ringleader Alexandros Giotopoulos — a decision subsequently overturned by the Supreme Court — with only 19 percent supporting it, reflecting the depth of public feeling about the case.