Greek Socialists ahead in poll despite austerity

Support for Greece's ruling Socialists declined slightly from last month, but they still enjoy a big lead over their conservative opponents despite unpopular austerity measures, a poll published on Sunday showed.                                           

The poll published in Sunday's edition of the Kathimerini newspaper showed the Socialists winning 43% of the vote against 25% for the main conservative opposition party if an election were held now.                                           

The poll, carried out by Public Issue on July 1-5, showed a decline in support for the Socialists of 2 percentage points compared to a poll by the same agency last month.                                            

The poll was conducted before parliament approved a drastic overhaul of the pension system last week, part of measures aimed at pulling the troubled euro zone nation out of a debt crisis.                                           

The government has agreed deep cuts to spending in return for a €110 billion ($139.5 billion) bailout from the European Union and the IMF. Labour unions oppose the reforms and have staged strikes and demonstrations.                                            

The Socialist Party came to power last October, and elections are not due until 2013.                                           

Another poll conducted on July 3 by Kapa Research, which tallied undecided voters as well as those who expressed a preference, placed the Socialists ahead of the conservatives by 8 percentage points with 23.4%. It showed 40.1% of voters were undecided.