CNBC –An opinion poll in Greece has put radical leftwing Syriza party slightly ahead of its closest rival, signalling that former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s gamble to hold a snap election to strengthen his premiership could pay off, CNBC reported.
The poll, conducted by Pulse for website bankingnews.gr and published on Monday, showed that Tsipras is on course to win 27 percent of the vote in the vote to be held on September 20 while the opposition conservative New Democracy party, is projected to get 26.5 percent of the vote.
Golden Dawn was third in the poll with 6.5 percent of the vote and Syriza’s former coalition partner, Independent Greeks, had 2.5 percent.
Otmar Issing, German economist and former European Central Bank (ECB) board member, told CNBC at the weekend that the outcome of the election “had become so uncertain.”
“Tsipras has lost popularity and so it’s just speculation what new government could be formed so I think this is the last thing that Greece should experience because they need a stable political environment to conduct immediate reforms.”
Issing said that any new government needed to create stability for both the Greek public and investors, “otherwise, I’m afraid, the crisis will continue.”
Stephen King, senior economic adviser at HSBC, told CNBC on Monday that there was likely to be more political wranglings in the years ahead over the 86 billion euro bailout and the tough targets lenders have placed on the country.
“Greece has to drive down its labour costs, it has to make itself more competitive and do lots of restructuring and there will probably be more political opposition to that over the next two or three years,” King told CNBC Europe’s “Squawk Box”.
“They’ve got this incredible commitment to delivering this primary surplus for a number of years and it’s difficult to find examples in the world of countries that have done that year after year without having the benefit of some kind of exchange rate devaluation so Greece has a long way to go to get back to some sense of economic normality.”
