Spain’s Sanchez Loses Support As Lockdown Continues, Poll Shows

(Bloomberg) --

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s party is losing voters’ support amid Europe’s strictest lockdown to contain the Covid-19 virus begin to show, according to a Celeste-Tel survey published by eldiario.es.

Sanchez’s Socialists would lose four seats for a total of 116, according to the poll. Unidas Podemos, the minority partner in the Sanchez-led coalition government, would lose one seat. The conservative People’s Party, the largest opposition group, who would gain six seats and the Spanish nationalist party Vox would gain two.

Sanchez is seeking support in Parliament this week to extend a state of emergency, set to expire May 23, by another month as the government pushes ahead with the phasing out of a national lockdown in place since March 14. The People’s Party has already announced that it will vote against the extension, which it says isn’t needed anymore because there are other options for managing the easing of the lockdown.

The telephone poll of 1,100 interviews carried out May 4-8 has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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