Agence France-Presse
Madrid, June 5: Spain’s anti-austerity party Podemos and its allies could overtake the Socialists in this month’s general election to become the country’s main opposition, three polls showed Sunday. The surveys published in El Pais, El Mundo and El Espanol dailies showed acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party coming first again, with 27.7-31 per cent, still way short of a Parliamentary majority. That result would be comparable to the 28.7 per cent, which the party obtained in an inconclusive December 20 general election that resulted in a hung House.
The Socialists, however, would drop from the second to third place, garnering just 20.2-21.6 per cent while Unidos Podemos — an alliance made up of Podemos and its smaller rival Izquierda Unida — would receive 23.7-25.6 per cent. The Socialists, voice of Spain’s left, captured 22 per cent of the vote during the last election, just ahead of Podemos which got 20.7 per cent. Podemos, a close ally of Greece’s ruling Syriza party, in early May formed an alliance with Izquierda Unida, a far-left party, to run together in the June 26 repeat elections. Centrist party Ciudadanos would be fourth with 14-16.6 per cent support, the polls showed, compared to 13.9 per cent in December.
Before the December 20 general election, polls consistently overestimated support for Ciudadanos and underestimated support for Podemos. “We once again face a complex political situation which could see the formation of a new government delayed until after the August holidays,” El Mundo wrote in an editorial. Spain has been governed by a caretaker government with limited powers since the December 20 polls.
