Bye bye Syriza?
The Telegraph reports:
Greek voters are set to punish the government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras after polls show his hard-Left Syriza party is on course for a shock defeat in a general election later this month.
Mr Tsipras, who called a snap vote on August 20, has seen his party’s comfortable 15 point lead evaporate in just six weeks, putting the centre-right New Democracy in pole position to lead Greece’s fifth government in just four years.
The ascendant conservatives – who support the bail-out and will keep the country in the euro at all costs – edged ahead of Syriza for the first time since May 2014 in two polls this week.
A survey carried out by Metron analysis put ND in the lead with 24pc of the vote, compared to 23.4pc for the incumbent Leftists. A previous poll for Mega TV put them on course for 25.3pc of the vote ahead of Syriza’s 25pc.
Who gets the most votes is important as that party receives a bonus 50 seats in Parliament. 250 are set proportionally and the largest gets an extra 50 to try and achieve majority government.
So if you get 40% that is 100 out of 250, and an extra 50 is 150/300.
No surprise Syriza are in trouble. It takes a special level of incompetence to reject a deal, persuade your country to reject a deal, and then a week later sign up to an even worse deal.