Spain's conservative People's Party is on course to defeat the ruling Socialists with an absolute majority in the parliamentary election in November, an opinion poll showed today.
A total of 44.8 per cent of voters intend to choose the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy, giving the party a 14.1 percentage point lead against the Socialist party, led into the election by former interior minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba.
The Metroscopia poll for left-leaning newspaper El Pais showed Mr Rubalcaba was being hit by the lack of popularity of Socialist prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero despite attempts to reconnect with some of the party's traditional supporters on the left.
The conservatives' lead would theoretically set the party up for an absolute majority, although the paper said the number of seats won was impossible to calculate accurately because votes per constituency cannot be estimated.
Neither leader of the two main political parties was popular, according to the poll. Only 22 per cent of those questioned said Mr Rajoy inspired their confidence a lot, or quite a lot compared with 19 per cent for Mr Rubalcaba.
Some 76 per cent said they had no confidence, or little confidence in the conservative leader and 79 per cent were sceptical about Mr Rubalcaba.
Mr Zapatero called early elections in July to be held on November 20th.
The prime minister's popularity has suffered after forcing through wide-reaching austerity measures.
A worsening euro zone debt crisis has raised Spain's financing costs and created fears that it will be next in seeking an EU bailout after Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
Reuters