Socialists on course to win gen election: poll 04/09/2007 00:00

4 September 2007

MADRID - (AFP) - Spain's ruling Socialists are on course to win general elections early next year, according to polls published on Monday which also suggested the main opposition party needs a new leader.

An Opina poll for Cadena Ser radio, close to the government, showed the Socialists would win with 44 percent, ahead of the conservative Popular Party (PP) on 39.5 percent.

Another poll by Sigma-Dos for centre-right El Mundo showed a narrower gap with the Socialists on 41.1 percent to 39.7 for the PP.

The elections will most likely take place in April.

That poll also showed that 54 percent of Spaniards think the Socialists will win compared with just 25 confident of the PP's chances.

Nonetheless, the Opina poll of 1,000 people on August 29 showed that Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's approval rating had slid in late June from 54.8 percent to 48.7 percent.

Even so, Opina showed PP leader Mariano Rajoy in a trough at a year low approval rating of 27 percent from 32.5 percent in June.

Worse for Rajoy, who succeeded two-term former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar ahead of the 2004 general election loss, Opina showed 44 percent of those questioned preferred to see Madrid's PP mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon in charge of the party with the PP's former IMF head Rodrigo Rato on 24.8 percent.

Just 24 percent plumped for Rajoy while even among PP voters it was Rato who came in first with 38.2 percent ahead of Ruiz-Gallardon (28.1) and Rajoy (24).

[Copright AFP with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news