Greek pro-European leader emerges as frontrunner in national elections

The new leader of the conservative New Democracy party Vangelis Meimarakis may emerge as the surprise winner of the Greek elections next week, opinion polls show.

A poll released by the University of Macedonia on 11 September showed pro-European New Democracy trailing by just one point with 19%. Those polled said they had been impressed by Meimarakis’s performance in a political leaders’ debate last week, compared to 13.5% who favoured former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, who was elected as Greece’s prime minister on a manifesto of opposing the stringent austerity conditions, announced his resignation on August 20 days after a third austerity deal was reached.

And with elections only a week from Sunday, Tsipras’s grasp at the top of the Greece’s political echelon seems that it would become a distant memory. In July, data released by polling company Metron Analysis revealed a 25-point gap between New Democracy and Syriza, with the leftists leading at 42%. Assured of victory, Tsipras called for snap elections, hoping to tighten his grip on power after a rebellion within his ruling Syriza party over the new bailout deal stripped him of a parliamentary majority.

But mirroring the unpredictability of Greece, little has gone to plan.

With many blaming the leftists for months of political and economic turmoil – culminating with Tsipras’s shock decision to put the demands of creditors to popular referendum and the imposition of debilitating capital controls – the backing for Syriza has dropped dramatically.

The euphoria that greeted Tsipras’s stunning victory in January has instead been replaced by political cynicism.

First-time voters, Syriza’s traditional core supporters and young Greeks hit by unemployment of more than 50% – all of whom had rushed to vote “no” in the referendum, only to see their vote turned into a “yes” – feel particularly betrayed.

With no party set to win an absolute majority, Meimarakis, who took over New Democracy as interim leader when Antonis Samaras, his predecessor, resigned in July, has since emerged as a front runner.

A survey by Palmos Analysis on Saturday reinforced the findings, with the conservatives gathering 23.7% of voter support, compared with 24.9% for the leftists. “He has an emotional intelligence [and speaks] common sense,” said political analyst Dimitris Kerides.

“He has also managed to unite the party’s various factions, move it to the centre and, in so doing, appeal to a wider audience,” he told the Observer. “He is the great surprise of this election.”