The survey of 1,000 people carried out in March by the Latvijas Fakti pollster suggests ZZS is now more popular than beat the long-standing ratings leader Harmony and carries considerably more sway among the people than either of its coalition rivals, the National Alliance and Unity.
The highest number of respondents, or 20.2 percent, would have cast their votes for the populist agrarian Union of Greens and Farmers if parliamentary elections were held in March, while self-styled 'social democratic' opposition party Harmony would have received 17.9 percent of the vote.
Nine percent of Latvia’s eligible voters would have cast their ballots for the nationalist National Alliance.
Meanwhile there was further confirmation that support for the center-right Unity party, until recently the dominant force in Latvian politics, has completely collapsed with it taking 5.5 percent of the vote - barely enough to see it scrape over the 5 percent electoral threshold required to win seats in Saeima.
Two other opposition parties with seats in Saeima, Latvia's Regional Alliance and For Latvia from the Heart – failed to get above the 5 percent threshold.
However, it should also be noted that a sizeable 22.4 percent chunk of respondents said they were undecided and 14.7 percent said they had no intention of voting at all.
The news of ZZS' surge will be good news for Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis. Having previously been a member of several other parties and even after being wooed by Unity, he plumped for ZZS membership just two years ago and now finds himself running the country on behalf of party performing strongly.
After a shaky start and some criticism for going on vacation just a month after taking the PM's job, Kucinskis is starting to exert a measure of authority, expressing strong disapproval of his ministers' weak plans for the future and telling them to redraw their proposals.
Veidojot Valdības rīcības plānu, nevaram rakstīt sapņu grāmatu, kura pēc tam nevienam nebūs vajadzīga - to uzsvēru @RitaPanorama
— Maris Kucinskis (@MarisKucinskis) April 5, 2016
Government plans cannot be "books of dreams" with no chance of being achieved, he tweeted on Tuesday.
