This month’s opinion poll by the Prorata firm – coming ahead of a May 21 general election – shows a strong trend among respondents in favor of coalition governments in Greece.

The poll results were unveiled on the prime-time newscast of the regional Athens-area channel Attica.

Specifically, six out of 10 respondents surveyed said they favored such governments, the result of post-election cooperation among parties. Conversely, 35 percent of respondents said new elections would be called immediately without any effort to form a coalition government if results have the first-past-the-post party lacking a big enough electoral percentage to field 150+1 deputies in the 300-MP Parliament.

A large majority of respondents, 75 percent, consider that the leader of the first-past-the-poll party should receive the prime minister’s mandate.

Compared to the previous poll by the same firm, incumbent New Democracy (ND) party is shown as increasing its lead over main opposition SYRIZA party, by 1.5 percentage points, with the gap now given at four percentage points – 31.5 percent to 27.5 percent for SYRIZA, compared to 28.5 percent and 26 percent, respectively, in last month’s poll.

The poll by the same firm this month gives PASOK 9.5 percent, followed by the Communist Party (KKE) at 6 percent.

The undecided portion in this poll reaches 10.5 percent.

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