The scandals surrounding the PSOE have finally taken their toll on Pedro Sánchez's electoral prospects, according to the Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), headed by José Félix Tezanos. In the July poll, the first to follow the imprisonment (on 30 June) of the former Socialist Organisation Secretary, Santos Cerdán, and the scandal surrounding the alleged harassment of women in the party by Paco Salazar - another leader in Sánchez's inner circle - the PSOE has seen a clear drop in voting intentions.
In the study published this Friday, the PSOE lost seven points compared to the results obtained in June, with its voting intention falling to 27%, compared to 34.3% a month ago. Despite everything, it is still half a point above the PP, which obtained 26.5%, according to estimates from the public polling institute. The Popular Party would also register, therefore, a slight drop, of 0.8 points, compared to the results of the last poll carried out in June.
The party that will reap the benefits of the PSOE's fall would be Vox, which rises 5.7 points, reaching 18.9% of the votes, while Sumar would also rise slightly, exactly 0.8%, to stand at 7.8%. For its part, Podemos
also rises in voting intention, but only two tenths, to place itself, going from 4.2 to 4.4%.Behind Podemos would be ERC, which drops two tenths and obtains 1.2%; Alvise Pérez's party, Se acaba la Fiesta (SALF), which drops three tenths and remains at 1.2%; Junts, which drops half a point and obtains 0.6% of the votes; Bildu, which loses six tenths and remains at 0.6%; and PNV, which obtains 0.5%, which is one tenth less than a month ago.
The fieldwork for this survey was carried out between July 1 and 7, with 4,018 interviews with citizens over 18 years of age, at a time of maximum political tension, after Sánchez was forced to reshuffle his executive to address the gap opened by the indictment and imprisonment of Santos Cerdán.
In the previous instalment, in June, the CIS recorded an improvement in the Socialist Party's voting intention, estimated at a rise of 2.3 points in one month, based on fieldwork carried out amid the noise generated by the revelation of Leire Díez's role as a"plumber" for the party. At that time, the poll again placed the PSOE in first place, with 34.3% of the vote and seven points behind the PP, the largest gap between the two parties in the entire legislative period.
I support Sánchez in his fight with NATO over defense spending.
The CIS study asks Spaniards about the pulse that the President of the Government has maintained with NATO and with President Trump over defense spending and concludes that 54.9% of those surveyed support Sánchez's decision to"limit" defense spending to 2.1% of GDP, compared to the allies' demand to raise it to 5%. Those who believe that Donald Trump's request should be met are 29.5%, while 10.7% do not agree with either option.
Along the same lines, 57.5% believe the Spanish government should not comply with the US president's demands regarding military spending, while 34.7% believe the conditions imposed should be met.
The CIS adds another question on this subject:"Do you know that allocating 5% of Spain's GDP to defense spending would entail a sharp increase in taxes and/or a reduction in salaries and social spending?" 72.8% of respondents answered affirmatively.
