Vox party leader Santiago Abascal (R) addresses Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (L). EPA/MARISCAL

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Spanish Socialists drop in polls, while Vox surges

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Support for the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) has fallen, weighed down by numerous alleged scandals, if the most recent polls are to be believed.

The biggest winner was the Vox Party, which has recorded a big jump in the polls.

According to the latest numbers from the CIS barometer, a monthly public opinion survey conducted by Spain’s Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), a government-funded research institute, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s PSOE would fell by 7.3 percentage points.

It would still be the biggest party in the country, with 27 per cent of the votes, but only narrowly and far below the 34.3 it scored just one month ago.

The second-largest party would be the centre-right People’s Party (PP), at 26.5 per cent, down 0.8 per cent compared with June.

Vox would come in third, making the biggest gains, surging from 13.2 per cent to 18.9 per cent.

Smaller parties insluding Sumar, Podemos, the Catalan independence (ERC) party and Se Acabó La Fiesta (SALF) remained more or less at the same level, all up but by less than 1 per cent.

The latest polls in the CIS barometer took place the day that Santos Cerdán, former secretary of the PSOE and close ally of Pedro Sánchez, had been put in custody by Spain’s Supreme Court.

He received that for alleged crimes of bribery, criminal organisation and influence peddling in the so-called Koldo case. That involved Koldo García, ex-adviser to a former minister, who was accused of alleging rigging Covid-era contracts and taking bribes.

Several high-level officials have been under investigation regarding this case but since then, other alleged scandals has surfaced over the PSOE.

When asked what the biggest problem in Spain was, most respondents, 14.1 per cent, answered: “The government, specific parties or politicians.”

This was followed by “cost of living”, with 13.9 per cent of people, and “corruption and fraud” at 13.1 per cent, with respondents saying that was the main issue facing the country.

Immigration was also a prominent issue for many would-be voters.

The person seen as most favourable to lead the next government, from a list of all prominent politicians, was “none of the above”.

Second on the list was Sánchez, with the backing of 22.5 per cent of the respondents. That was down from 25.8.

PP’s leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo went up by 1.4 percentage points to 11.4 per cent, just ahead of Santiago Abascal of Vox, who shot up from 6.5 per cent to 11.3 per cent.