Spanish Poll Shows Support Waning for Coalition Government

(Bloomberg) -- Public support for Spain’s Socialists and their coalition partner Podemos slipped in January, illustrating the precariousness of the new government before it’s even begun to function.

Some 26% of people polled backed the Socialists, compared with the party’s 28% vote share in November’s general election, according to a survey published by the newspaper ABC. Support for anti-austerity Podemos inched down to 12.4% from 12.8%.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez last week succeeded in breaking a nine-month political stalemate and attracting sufficient votes in parliament to form a government, after reaching accords with Podemos and the Catalan separatist group Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.

Sanchez is due to speak on Sunday for the first since the successful confidence vote. He’s expected to officially name his cabinet and outline policy priorities.

The center-right People’s Party and Ciudadanos both gained in ABC’s poll, rising to 23.2% and 7.3%, respectively. The right-wing Vox party, the third-largest group in parliament, was stable. The poll of 1,000 computer-assisted interviews carried out Jan. 7-10 had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charlie Devereux in Madrid at cdevereux3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, William Shaw, James Amott

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.