Portugal’s Ruling Socialist Party Widens Lead Over SDP in Poll

(Bloomberg) -- Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s Socialist Party increased its lead over the Social Democratic Party ahead of elections in October, a poll published by newspapers Expresso indicated.

The Socialists would gain 38% of the vote if elections were held today, one percentage point more than in the previous survey in February. Support for the center-right PSD slipped to 23% from 25% in February.

Among the smaller parties, the conservatives of the CDS party would win 5%, the Left Bloc was at 11%, and 8% supported the Portuguese Communist Party.

The poll was carried out by the ICS and ISCTE university institutes on June 15-27, based on 801 valid interviews, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henrique Almeida in Lisbon at halmeida5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny

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