New poll: SYRIZA, the River rising

The latest one about the vote in the European parliamentary elections, was conducted by Pulse RC and is presented in today's issue of political weekly To Pontiki. The SYRIZA lead appears to be widening, however slightly, while new parties the River and Olive (Elia) Coalition are doing impressively well.

The SYRIZA lead over New Democracy appears at 2%. The opposition party is at 19%, while ruling ND is at 17%. Both outcomes are pretty low, but in European elections, fragmentation rules with big parties traditionally getting small percentages and smaller parties getting their share of votes.

The fact that the undecided vote is at 12% certainly doesn't help the cause of the two frontrunners. Beyond the match between the two, newly formed the River gets 10%, its biggest showing so far. The other newly formed coalition, Elia, based on the Italian Olive center-left experiment of the mid 1990s, gets 6.5%, a much better showing than the recent PASOK poll figures, the socialist party being the project's main contributor.

In the single digit league, following Elia are the Communist party (KKE) with 5%, Independent Greeks with 3.5% and Democratic Left with 2%.

All this new poll adds to the political calculations is a sense of uncertainty and fluctuation. SYRIZA maintains the lead, but more narrowly than one might expect given the resentment austerity has caused the government. The new parties are the rising force of the new landscape, while left wing parties seem to be struggling.