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Latest opinion poll shows close election race ahead in Spain

Xinhua, February 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Spanish general election which will be held at the end of this year looks like being a close-run affair with no party able to win an overall majority, a latest survey showed on Wednesday.

According to the three-monthly opinion poll published by the Spanish Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS), the PP would win most votes in a general election should it be held now in Spain with 27.3 percent of the vote, while the left wing collective Podemos is ahead of the Spanish Socialist (PSOE) Party.

The CIS believes Podemos would take 23.9 percent of the vote, while just 22.2 percent of voters would support the PSOE in an election.

The poll means that the PP have lost 0.2 percent of their support since the last CIS poll taken in October, while support for the PSOE continues to decline, despite the naming of Pedro Sanchez as the party leader.

In the light of the latest results, it does not appear Sanchez has been able to galvanize support for his party after replacing Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba as party leader in late July last year.

This is despite the CIS poll showing him to be the second highest rated of Spain's party leaders with an approval rating of 3.68, well ahead of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose rating is just 2.24.

Meanwhile Podemos continue to consolidate their support after being granted 22.5 percent in October and 15.3 percent in July 2014. It should be pointed out that Podemos' leader, Pablo Iglesias, was not given an approval rating in the CIS poll as he does not hold a seat in the Spanish Congress.

The United Left (Izquierda Unida) would take 5.1 percent of the vote, highlighting how their support has suffered along with that of the PSOE due to the Podemos phenomenon, while the center right Union Progress and Democracy had 4.6 percent of support and Citizens, (which has a similar ideology) 3.1 percent.

The investigations for the poll were carried out between Jan. 2-12, coinciding with the Charlie Hebro killings in Paris, but well before last weekend's march in support of Podemos through Madrid, which saw between 100,000 and 300,000 people take part, or Monday's joint signing of an anti-terrorism pack by Rajoy and Sanchez, or Tuesday's disappointing unemployment figures for January.

2015 is a vital year in Spanish politics as it does not just see the general election, which will be held in either late October or November, but also local elections scheduled for May, as well as elections for the Andalusian Regional Assembly on March 22 and for the Catalan Assembly (Generalitat) on Sept. 27.

The way things stand at the moment, it looks unlikely that any party is going to be able to win a majority government and pacts look as if they will be the order of the day. Endit