MADRID – The far-right Vox party, the third-largest in the Spanish parliament, has surged in popularity since the 2023 general election, while the ruling Socialist Party has recorded its worst result since then, a new poll showed on Monday.
The poll, conducted by 40dB on behalf of El País and Cadena SER, revealed on Monday that Vox (Patriots for Europe, PfE) has been improving its results for three months in a row and for the first time has exceeded 14% of voting intention (14.2%) – almost two points more than in the 2023 national election.
The far-right party, led by the controversial Santiago Abascal, is currently represented by 33 MPs in the national parliament (out of a total of 350) and six MEPs in the European Parliament.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE/S&D) gathered 28.4% of voting intention, three points less compared with 2023.
This is the worst vote estimate for the PSOE since then.
For its part, the right-wing Partido Popular (EPP), the main opposition force, also scored poorly in the poll: 32.6%, and has seen its voting intentions fall for three months in a row.
On the other hand, the left-wing platform Sumar, a junior partner in the coalition government with the PSOE, is also growing – it was the party with the highest increase in voting intentions – and is close to 6%, although far from the 12.4% it achieved in the July 2023 elections, in which it participated with the far-left Podemos.
Podemos, which split from Sumar in December 2023 after a bitter clash, received 3.4% of voting intentions.
Meanwhile, the far-right SALF (ECR) party, led by the controversial Alvise Pérez, polled below the 3% threshold needed to enter parliament.
(Fernando Heller | Euractiv.es)