Ruling New Democracy (ND) appears as gaining in momentum and consolidating a double-digit lead over all rivals ahead of the June European Parliament election, with results of the latest Metron Analysis showing the center-right party up by 2 percentage points from the last poll by the same firm. The results were presented on the prime-time newscast of Mega Channel on Thursday evening.

Specifically, an extrapolation of the results gives ND 32.2% of respondents’ preferences. Moreover, incumbent PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis is again judged as the most suitable for the prime minister’s office, far ahead of his rival, SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis, who polls a mere 9%. Nevertheless, leftist Syriza also appears to be gaining support and consolidating second place, with its electoral strength measured at 15.4%, up from 15.1% in the same poll last month. Conversely, socialist PASOK continues to slip, losing another percentage point to stand at 12%.

In this month's Metron Analysis poll, Andreas Loverdos, a former PASOK minister, received 1.6% of respondents' preferences, which is a surprise increase in support for his new party. A party must garner above 3% of the general vote (of valid ballots) to send a candidate to the European Parliament.

Asked which problem they consider as the most acute, a majority of respondents again said the cost of living. Additionally, seven out of 10 respondents said the government’s policy to deal with inflation were insufficient. Similarly, a majority of respondents negatively assessed the efforts to deal with crime.

The most popular political leaders are Mitsotakis, followed by Communist Party (KKE) general-secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas and former Parliament president Zoe Konstantopoulou, who founded and heads up the small left-of-center Course of Freedom (Plefsi Eleftherias) party. Asked if they are interested in the European Parliament election, 66% of respondents replied in the affirmative, compared to 61% recorded last month for the same question