MADRID, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The latest opinion poll published by the Spanish Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS) on Thursday shows a continued rise in the popularity of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's Socialist (PSOE) Party.
The polls also shows that center-right party Ciudadanos has overtaken the right-wing People's Party (PP) in voting intention and would be the second most voted party if a general election were to be held now in Spain.
The survey which was carried out by asking 2,973 people their voting opinions between Oct. 1 and 9, gives the PSOE 31.6 percent of the vote. This is over 1.1 percent higher than in September and almost 9 percent up on the 22.66 percent the party polled in the June 2016 General Election.
The poll has bad news for the PP, showing the effect of Pablo Casado replacing Mariano Rajoy as party leader in June has had quickly run out of steam, with just 18.20 percent of those asked saying they would vote PP in a general election.
This is a 2 percent drop from the September poll and almost 15 percent down on the 33 percent the PP won in the last general election.
Most of the votes lost by the PP appear to have gone to Ciudadanos, whose support has climbed to 21 percent; 1.4 percent more than the 19.4 percent they had a month ago and an important improvement on the 13.05 percent from June 2016.
Support also continues to rise for Unidos Podemos, with the left wing party claiming 17.3 percent of votes. This takes them close to the PP and continues a steady improvement in recent months, but still down on the 21.10 percent in the last general election.
The CIS poll also rules out a groundswell of support for the extreme right-wing party VOX.
A poll carried out by the company "Metroscope" a week ago implied VOX could claim as many of 5 percent of the votes in a theoretical election, enough to have representatives in Congress, however, the CIS poll gives the party just 1.3 percent of the vote, fewer than the 1.6 percent of people who say they would vote for animal rights party "PACMA".
