Spain's ruling party sees lower support in opinion poll

Public support for the ruling Popular Party (PP) of Spain has lowered, an opinion poll showed on Friday. According to the poll carried out between July 1 and 10 by the Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS), the PP would win just 32.5 percent of the votes if a general election were called now, lower than 34 percent in the poll conducted in April and having lost 12.75 points since their general election win in November 2011. The main opposition Socialist (PSOE) Party would win 27.2 percent of the votes, also lower than 28.73 percent they polled in the election and 32.2 percent in April, the poll showed. With faith in the big two parties fading in the face of their apparent inability to provide solutions to Spain's problems, smaller parties are growing in popularity with the left-wing Izquierda Unida (IU) predicted to take 11.5 percent of the votes and center-right Union Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) to poll 8 percent, higher than the April level of 9.9 percent and 7.4 percent respectively. On an individual level, there is disappointment with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has an approval rating of just 2.45 out of 10, while PSOE leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba is hardly more convincing with a score of 3.14 out of 10. Finally, the poll showed the main worries of most Spaniards continue to be unemployment, despite recent seasonal falls in unemployment and corruption. About 68.9 percent of the people consider Rajoy's management of the country to be "bad" or "very bad."