Three quarters of Greeks think that the government's plan to cut the country's budget deficit are "socially unfair" because it is aimed at lower earners, a poll showed today.
The survey also showed nearly half of Greeks did not see a safety-net deal agreed last week by euro zone leaders to prevent a fiscal crisis here as positive.
Facing rising borrowing costs and pressure from its euro zone peers, the Socialist-led government has cut public wages, frozen pensions and raised taxes to cut the budget gap by almost a third to 8.7 per cent of gross domestic product.
The poll showed 75.2 per cent of respondents did not like the measures, mainly because they thought they hit pensioners and salaried workers too much and did not contribute to growth.
Nearly as many -- 72.2 per cent -- believed the direction of developments were "bad" or "very bad" in the Mediterranean state of 11 million, according to the survey taken by agency MRB and published in the Realnews weekly.
The IMF and European Union have supported the austerity steps and say they should be adequate to prevent a deepening of the crisis, but investors are keeping a close eye on public opinion because they are still unsure whether the government will be able to carry them out.
Demonstrators have staged weekly marches in Athens, and memories of violent 2009 clashes between protesters and police have raised concern that the government may lose its nerve if social unrest rises.
Reuters