To Vima, Kapa Research and the Polls

An old Greek political insider, whenever asked to predict the election winner, often refers to the words of Konstantinos Karamanlis: “You want to know what the dynamics of the political parties are? I’ll tell you when the elections are called and the central dilemma is clear. You want to know who will win? I’ll tell…

September 2015 Exit Poll Data

At the end of the election period as Syriza finally managed to maintain its party cohesion at a satisfactory 76.3%.

Its most significant losses:

– Popular Unity: 5.8%, not as considerable as one would expect at the end of August

– New Democracy: 5.2%, conservative voters that have turned to Syriza in January due to taxation,

– About 2% lost to KKE, ANEL, Pasok-Dimar, Centrists’ Union and Other Parties.

The main inflows:

– New Democracy: a significant 5% convinced by the negotiating effort of A. Tsipras,

– Potami where 1 in 4 (23%) of its voters moved to Syriza,

– 14.4% of KKE, 12.3% of ANEL and 11.4% of Pasok,

– 1 in 5 (21.9%) of Kinima (George Papandreou’s party),

Easter, Faith and Religion in Greece

As one of the four countries with official Orthodox Christian religion, Greece continues to celebrate Easter with devotion, reverence and by maintaining the traditional customs associated with it. Nevertheless, the people’s belief in God and in the Christian narrative has decreased significantly compared to ten years ago.

Polls, Predictions and Election Results

At Kapa Research we are committed to achieving the highest standards in research methodology and thereby the maximum quality of surveys. Over the years, starting with the first exit poll in the country in 1992, we have been advancing our capacity to conduct exit polls that can approach election outcomes with precision and accuracy, regardless of type of election.

New entrepreneurship

Nations, as man-made entities, often operate like humans: just as a tragic event changes the life of a person forever, so a historical event changes the course of a nation fundamentally. The latest Kapa Research survey on Economy and Development in Greece, shows that the crisis of 2010 and its consequences seem to change not only the lives of Greeks but also the fundamental economic approach of the country, in the same way that the hyperinflation of the 1920s and the Second World War worked for Germany. Two key research findings underpin the above assumption: the socio-political dimension of Unemployment, and the New Entrepreneurial Model that has begun to emerge for those who are interested in starting their own business.

The crisis of mass representation

Heading towards the May 2014 double-election in Greece – regional/local and European Parliament elections – various small parties come into play and compete side-by-side with older and larger political formations. However, these small parties are claiming the popular vote rather unconventionally; their objectives are presented primarily through their leader’s ambitions, not through policy proposals. What caused this fragmentation of the Greek party system of representation? Without questioning its intensity or its extent, the “crisis” is the answer that almost automatically comes up to explain every major change taking place in the country in the recent years. In fact, the phenomenon of political fragmentation is not exclusively Greek. All of Europe – at least the countries that make up the EU – is experiencing the decline of mass democracy and of its main pillar, the “catch-all” party.

The Anonymous Unemployed

If we had to identify the strongest and most consistent demands of Greek public opinion during the post-dictatorship period, it would come to the following three: democracy, freedom, and equal treatment of the underprivileged. A set of values ​​that could also be described as “I want to live freely with a right to hope”. In the mid-2000s, though, this changed. It may seem inferior, but decent employment or “a good job” became the main demand.

Actions vs. Words

Europe always constituted a stable reference point for Greeks: a field of peace, democracy, and economic development that counterbalanced the country’s domestic problems, as well as the instability of its neighborhood. Although this symbolic context is still evident from the July 2013 survey (remaining in the Euro dominates returning to the Drachma, the national currency), Greek people cast direct doubt on the ability of Europe itself to recover from the crisis and thereby improve its 500m citizens’ living conditions in the coming years.