New poll implies no change in Spain if new elections called

A monthly opinion poll published on Sunday in Spain showed that new elections, if called, would do little or nothing to alter the political stalemate between the country's four main parties.

The poll was published in the El Pais newspaper on Sunday.

If Spain's political parties fails to reach an agreement on the formation of a coalition government within a month, the Spanish Constitution stipulates that the Congress will be dissolved and a new general election called.

The poll carried out by Metroscope shows that Mariano Rajoy's People's Party would obtain 27.7 percent of the votes, just 0.1 percentage points down from their result in the Dec. 20 election, despite the revelations of corruption scandals involving the party in Madrid and Valencia.

Pedro Sanchez's failed attempt to try and form a government with center-right Citizens (C's) has made his Socialist Party see the support drop from 22 percent to 21 percent.

However, C's have seen its support rising by almost 5 percentage points to 18.8 percent, and the party leader Albert Rivera is considered the most highly rated among Spain's political leaders and his party is viewed as the most united in Spain.

Meanwhile, the support for left-wing Podemos has slipped after it has appeared to suffer some internal divisions. Some voters have shifted allegiances to the United Left whose support has climbed to 6.9 percent.

According to the poll, the problem for Spain is that should these results be repeated in a possible June 26 election, they would still leave no party with a clear majority in Congress. Another round of negotiations would still be needed to end the stalemate. Endit