A broad majority of Greeks say the country needs political change as frustration over living costs and the economy weighs on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s government, according to a new opinion poll that points to an increasingly unsettled political landscape.
The Metron Analysis survey, presented Thursday by Greek broadcaster MEGA, found that 61% of respondents favored political change, compared with 38% who prioritized political stability. Two-thirds said Greece was moving in the wrong direction, while 29% said it was heading the right way.
Economic pressure appears to be driving much of the dissatisfaction. Some 49% of respondents said their personal economic and social circumstances had deteriorated, against 13% who reported an improvement. The cost of living was identified as a major problem by 52%, while 34% cited the broader economy.
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Those findings present a challenge for Mitsotakis, whose center-right New Democracy government has sought to shift attention toward economic measures announced this month at the Thessaloniki International Fair, Greece’s main annual venue for government economic-policy announcements. The poll indicates those initiatives have yet to produce a substantial improvement in public sentiment.
Government performance received a negative assessment from 66% of respondents, compared with 29% who viewed it positively. Mitsotakis’s own job rating was similar: 65% negative and 31% positive.
The opposition, however, has struggled to convert dissatisfaction into broad support. Pasok, the official opposition, received negative ratings from 80% of respondents, while 78% held a negative view of its leader, Nikos Androulakis.
That disconnect is producing an unusually fragmented electoral picture.
New Democracy remained the largest party, with 25.1% in stated voting intention. Metron Analysis’s vote estimate, which reallocates undecided responses, put the governing party at 30.2%, virtually unchanged from 30.4% in June.
The newly established Greek Left Alliance, or ELAS, associated with former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, was estimated at 15.8%, ahead of Pasok at 12.6%. Greek Solution stood at 6.9%, the Communist Party at 6.1% and Course of Freedom at 5.8%.
