ATHENS – Major opposition SYRIZA leader and former premier Alexis Tsipras is firing blanks in his attempts to drive down popularity for the ruling New Democracy which still has a 13 point lead.

That was the finding of a poll by the company pulse for broadcaster SKAI which gave the ruling Conservatives a 36.5-23.5 percent edge as Tsipras' constant sniping at Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has failed to work.

Tsipras has blamed the government and Mitsotakis directly for what the opposition leader said were problems in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and economy but voters aren't buying his arguments.

The ruling Conservatives lead by 13 percent over main opposition SYRIZA in voter intention, according to a new poll by Pulse, conducted on behalf of broadcaster SKAI.

In third place, the politically-irrelevant center-left Movement for Change (KINAL) could garner only 6.5 percent of the vote. The party is led by veterans of the now defunct PASOK Socialists who got 43.9 percent of the vote when former leader George Papandreou won the premiership in October, 2009.

Fourth in its usual spot that hasn't changed much for decades were the KKE Communists at 5.5 percent, followed by the ultra-nationalist Greek Solution with 4 percent and then MeRA25 at 3.5 percent.

The finding came a few days after a survey from the firm Opinion Poll gave New Democracy a 17.4 percent lead over the Leftists who are falling further under Tsipras, who broke virtually all his promises during a 4 ½ year reign.

That ended in a New Democracy rout in July 7, 2019 snap polls and SYRIZA – which changed its name from the Radical Left to Progressive – after the beating, falling further even as Tsipras keeps up unstoppable criticism. 

Greece requires parties to get 3 percent of the vote to get into Parliament although that means minor parties have no impact and no real voice in a 300-member body that leaves them to do little.

Some 4.5 percent of respondents said they would vote blank, invalid or abstain and 8.5 percent didn't know who they backed or didn't want to give an answer as to their preference if they had one.