Greek legislative election, September

New Democracy has seen its popularity rise by one point to 10.5 percent against ruling SYRIZA in the latest opinion poll by Pulse, as 33.5 percent of respondents said they would vote for the conservatives if elections were held now, against 23 percent who would cast ballots for SYRIZA.

Greece's main opposition maintains an eight percent lead over the ruling leftist party, according to a new opinion poll published in Efimeritha ton Syntakton on Saturday.

The survey by ProRata showed that New Democracy would get 35 percent of the vote if elections were held now, versus 27 for SYRIZA.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to meet on Saturday with the leaders of the main opposition parties to inform them about the discussions with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the name issue, although there is growing tension within his own coalition about the matter. 

Candidate leaders for a new center-left party that is set to be launched this year will be holding their first television debate on Monday night, amid speculation over the party's makeup and platform.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to hold a series talks with the leaders of Greek opposition parties to brief them on last week's Eurogroup deal and developments with Cyprus talks.

According to a statement issued by his office, Tsipras is to meet on Monday afternoon with Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis followed by the head of Union of Centrists Vassilis Leventis.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is scheduled to brief the leaders of the Greek political parries on Monday and Tuesday on the results of the June 15 EuroGroup meeting. Mr. Tsipras is expected to meet today at 6pm with the leader of “Potami” party Stavros Theodorakis, while at 7pm he will see the president of the centrist party “Union of Centrists”, Vassilis Leventis.

The Greek Parliament passed an amendment providing a bonus financial benefit to pensioners with 196 Yes votes, after the amendments was backed by the government majority (SYRIZA-ANEL) as well as the communists (KKE), extreme right Golden Dawn (GD) and the Democratic Alignment. 61 New Democracy (ND) MPs voted “Present”, while “To Potami” and “Union Centrists” deputies abstained.

Ruling SYRIZA party gained little in the form of public opinion support despite the recent announcements by PM Alexis Tsipras that he would give 1.6 million pensioners a 13th bonus pension, according to MRB’s trends study. The poll showed opposition party New Democracy (ND) leading with 26.1% compared to SYRIZA’s 14.1% on the question of how the respondents intended to vote for.

The gap between the political parties of New Democracy and Syriza is widening according to an opinion poll conducted by the University of Macedonia on behalf of Skai TV.

In the new survey, the opposition party is leading the governing party by 16 points, with 32% to 16% respectively.

New Democracy appears closer to forming a majority government in the next general election, according to the latest survey by the University of Macedonia that was broadcast on Skai TV late Thursday.