Madrid: Spain’s governing People’s Party (PP) and the main opposition socialists (PSOE) have pulled well ahead of anti-establishment party Podemos ahead of national elections later this year, polls showed on Sunday.
Voter support for the centre-right PP stood at 29.1 per cent while the PSOE was on 25.1 per cent, according to a survey by pollsters GAD3 published in Spanish daily ABC.
Support for Podemos, which transformed Spain’s political landscape in mid-June when leftist municipal coalitions it backed took power in four of the country’s five biggest cities, fell to 15.0 per cent.
A second survey, by research firm Simple Logica and published on news portal larepublica.es, produced a similar result.
The findings contrast with recent polls that have shown the three parties running virtually neck-and-neck. In a survey from Metroscopia, considered the benchmark in Spain, published in El País on July 5, they all stood at between 21.5 and 23 per cent.
Both the GAD3 and Simple Logica surveys questioned around 1,000 voters. The former was conducted between June 23 and July 8 and the latter from July 1-9.
The parliamentary elections are expected to take place in November.
