MADRID: Support for Spain’s Socialists has jumped since leader Pedro Sanchez staged a successful no-confidence vote against previous Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, two polls looking at voting intentions showed on Sunday.
The June 1 no-confidence vote, raised in parliament by the Socialists after dozens of high ranking politicians from the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) were sentenced on corruption-related charges, ousted Rajoy after six years in power.
Sanchez, who leads the minority government which has just 84 seats in a 350-seat parliament and plans to remain in government until the end of the scheduled term in 2020, named his cabinet on Wednesday.
In a GAD3 poll taken on June 7-8 for newspaper ABC, the Socialists were seen winning 28.8 percent of the vote, ahead of the PP with 25.6 percent, market friendly Ciudadanos with 21.1 percent and anti-austerity party Podemos with 13.1 percent.
In the newspaper La Razon, a NC Report poll taken on June 1-9 put the Socialists in a close second place on 24.9 percent behind the PP on 25.5 percent. Ciudadanos, which has led some recent polls, stood at 21.0 percent and Podemos at 16.7 percent.
In the June 2016 general election, the Socialists won just 22.7 percent compared to 33.0 percent for the conservatives. According to some polls held before the non-confidence vote, Sanchez’ party had fallen into fourth place.
The GAD 3 poll surveyed 800 people by telephone while the NC poll involved calls to 1,200 people.
