Greek socialists still lead, but support slips in latest poll

Support for Greece's socialist government has slipped but it still leads the opposition conservatives despite austerity policies imposed to deal with the country's debt crisis, a poll showed on Friday.
The survey, carried out on January 7-11 by Public Issue for Kathimerini newspaper, showed the socialists leading with 38.5%, if elections were held now, against 30.5% for the conservatives.
Compared to a previous poll in December, the government's support has declined by one percentage point, and more voters expect labour unrest to intensify.
The communist party came third with 10.5%, followed by the anti-austerity Left Coalition with 6.0% and the far-right LAOS with 5.5%. The poll showed an abstention rate of 34%.
Prime Minister George Papandreou's government has raised taxes and cut public sector wages and pensions to cut the budget deficit as a condition for receiving EU/IMF emergency funding under a 110 bln euro bailout.
The survey showed that 84% of Greeks expect labour protests to intensify as the government pursues economic reforms, up from 78% in the previous poll.
Fifty-six percent of the respondents expect early elections, up by 14 percentage points from the December poll. The next general election is not due until October 2013.
"Only one in three think the government will serve its full four-year term, although 81% of citizens insist that an election adventure should be avoided," Kathimerini said.
The poll also showed that 67% of Greeks believe the country's standing on the international stage had weakened.