ATHENS – Even a spyware and phone bugging scandal didn’t put a dent in Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy government with a survey showing his lead still at 8 percent of the major opposition SYRIZA.

That was shown in the polling by Pulse RC for SKAI which found that New Democracy had a 34.5-26.5 percent edge over the leftists who were deposed in July, 2019 snap polls.

SYRIZA leader and former premier Alexis Tsipras has been sniping in vain for months at Mitsotakis over a range of issues, from the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy, to Turkish provocations, inflations and the spying on PASOK Socialist leader Nikos Androulakis and a financial journalist.

None of that bothered voters who still prefer Mitsotakis and his Conservatives by the margin the ruling party has held for months, ignoring or biting back againsst the criticisms from rivals.

PASOK has risen to 12 percent under the lead of Androulakis, also a Member of the European Parliament, who took over the party’s reins in December, 2021 after the untimely death of former leader Fofi Gennimata.

In fourth in their usual place but falling off a bit more was the KKE Communists at 5 percent, the ultra-nationalist Hellenic Solution next at 4 percent and the MeRA25 of former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis at 3 percent, the threshold needed to get into Parliament in the next elections in mid-2023.

Asked who was preferred to be Prime Minister, respondents gave Mitsotakis an even bigger lead, 11 percent, over Tsipras, the margin being 39-28 but it wasn’t said what the feelings were of the other 33 percent.