 Riot police arrest a right-wing protester outside the church of St. Panteleimon amid a cloud of tear gas in Athens on Saturday. AP photo |
Most Greeks agree with a government plan to build a fence along the land border with Turkey to keep illegal immigrants out of the country, a poll showed on Sunday.
Eight of every 10 Greeks support the proposal to erect a 12.5-kilometer barricade, and almost nine in 10 said immigrants who don’t qualify for asylum should be expelled from the country, according to the Marc SA poll of 1,014 Greeks published in Ethnos newspaper.
Illegal immigration has swelled in recent years as people fleeing countries like Iraq and Afghanistan seek entry to the European Union through Greece’s borders. Citizen Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis, who appealed for assistance from the EU last year to stem the wave, said last month one option was to build a fence along the Turkish border.
The influx has coincided with Greece’s economic decline, which led to the country securing a 110 billion-euro ($147 billion) bailout from the EU and the International Monetary Fund last year to stave off default in return for wage and pension cuts and tax increases.
The Marc poll, conducted Jan. 11 to Jan. 13, showed 40 percent don’t believe Greece can avoid bankruptcy, compared with 56 percent who said it could. Changes to labor rules and closed professions were deemed necessary by 65 percent of those polled.
Prime Minister George Papandreou and his socialist PASOK government won 28 percent of voter support compared with 21 percent for the opposition New Democracy party in the survey. More than 81 percent said they didn’t want early elections. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points to 2.8 percentage points.
Eight of every 10 Greeks support the proposal to erect a 12.5-kilometer barricade, and almost nine in 10 said immigrants who don’t qualify for asylum should be expelled from the country, according to the Marc SA poll of 1,014 Greeks published in Ethnos newspaper.
Illegal immigration has swelled in recent years as people fleeing countries like Iraq and Afghanistan seek entry to the European Union through Greece’s borders. Citizen Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis, who appealed for assistance from the EU last year to stem the wave, said last month one option was to build a fence along the Turkish border.
The influx has coincided with Greece’s economic decline, which led to the country securing a 110 billion-euro ($147 billion) bailout from the EU and the International Monetary Fund last year to stave off default in return for wage and pension cuts and tax increases.
The Marc poll, conducted Jan. 11 to Jan. 13, showed 40 percent don’t believe Greece can avoid bankruptcy, compared with 56 percent who said it could. Changes to labor rules and closed professions were deemed necessary by 65 percent of those polled.
Prime Minister George Papandreou and his socialist PASOK government won 28 percent of voter support compared with 21 percent for the opposition New Democracy party in the survey. More than 81 percent said they didn’t want early elections. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points to 2.8 percentage points.
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