Over 71% of Greeks want a solution without the term Macedonia

Athens – Only 22.5% of Greeks accept a composite name, and seven out of 10, or 71.5% want a solution without the term Macedonia, shows the opinion poll conducted by Thessaloniki University Macedonia and the Foreign Policy Foundation ELiAMEP, which publishes the Greek Journal “Kathimerini”. In 2016, on the same issue, within the same research, the percentage of those who did not accept the term Macedonia was 57 percent, and 38 percent of those surveyed for a composite name.

– Compared to the recent past when the issue was not part of the political agenda, we note an important increase in “uncompromising”. It seems that when the issue arises intensively in public dialogue, public opinion adopts a more inflexible position, writes professor at the University Nikos Marantzidis and research director of the research department Georgios Siakas in their analysis of the results in Sunday’s edition of “Kathimerini”.
Regarding the benefits of NATO, the EU, Germany, the United States, Russia and the UN, the respondents answered that either they are in favor of both countries, or in favor of Macedonia.
– The percentage of those who believe that the EU, NATO and its main partners (the United States and Germany) operate in favor of Greece is almost negligible, of about 5 percent. This data should be worrying, given that the central strategic choice of Greek diplomacy is pushing to resolve the dispute with the FYROM through Western institutions in which Greece participates, analyzes Ioannis Armakolas from ELIAMEP for “Kathimerini”.

For 65 percent of Greeks, the name dispute is important, while in relation to which direction the activities and positions of politicians in the name issue are moving, the majority asked for Tsipras and for Mitsotakis and Kotzias are in the wrong direction. The Greek Prime Minister has a slightly better image from the leader of the opposition.

More specifically, according to the results published today in “Kathimerini”, 56% of Greeks believe that the actions of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras are in the wrong direction, and 26.5% in the right direction. For the opposition New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, 54 percent of respondents said his views were in the wrong, 21.5 percent in the right direction. About 47% of the activities of the Foreign Minister of Greece say that they are moving in the wrong, 26% in the right direction. For Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, 51% of respondents said that his positions are in the wrong, and 26.5% in the right direction (the same percentage as Tsipras).