The PP is almost three points ahead of the PSOE in voting intention after the Galician elections and the outbreak of the Koldo case, according to the March barometer of the Center for Sociological Research, made public this Wednesday. If a general election were held, the Popular Party would win with 34% of support, compared to the PSOE, which would obtain 31.3%. Vox rises two points compared to the previous month and would rank as the third most voted force, with 9.9%, and Sumar, which governs with the PSOE, would gather 9.2% of voters and lose one point. In the last month, the Socialists have dropped 1.7 points in voting intention, while the Popular Party has risen almost one point. Labor also registers a drop of 0.7 points for Podemos, which moved to the mixed group of Congress in December, and which would obtain 2.2% of the ballots.
The March poll is the first to be published after the outbreak of the Koldo case which investigates the collection of illegal commissions in contracts for the purchase of masks in the middle of the pandemic and in which Koldo García is involved, a position of maximum trust of the former Minister of Transport, José Luis Ábalos, and after the Galician elections of last December 18 February, in which the PP revalidated its absolute majority, the BNG rose strongly and the PSOE sank.
By blocs, the right (PP and Vox) would obtain 43.4% in voting intention, almost three and a half points ahead of the union of PSOE and Sumar (40.5%). The Catalan independence groups register unequal results. ERC, with 1.9% voting intention, falls two tenths; while Junts, with 1.2%, gains another two tenths. PNV, with 0.9%, loses one tenth.
The survey has been prepared with some 3,931 telephone interviews carried out between March 1 and 5, so the first information about the plot being investigated by the National Court was already known. At the end of February, former Minister Ábalos became a deputy of the mixed group of the Congress of Deputies and days later the PP began to ask for the resignation of the president of the Congress Board, Francina Armengol because she was president of the Balearic Islands when her administration bought masks to the investigated company. In the March barometer field work, the closing of the amnesty law agreement between PSOE, ERC and Junts to present it to the Justice Commission, nor the arrest of the leader of the Coalition for Melilla for vote buying and fraud did not enter in public contracts within an operation derived from the postal ballot scandal in the 2023 regional elections.
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The dissemination of this survey occurs just one day after an article by the president of the CIS, José Félix Tezanos, was published, in which he stated that the PP's fear of losing the Galician elections mobilized activism in Galicia with “gratifications to the shellfish harvesters” and “little nuns organizing the vote.” The regional PP yesterday demanded the resignation of Tezanos for “insulting” and “treating Galicians like fools” and have also requested his appearance at the Senate Constitutional Commission to report on his “peculiar assessments in which the electoral results refute his polls.” ”, according to EP.
The last installment of the CIS, published on February 12, pointed to a technical tie between the PP and the PSOE before a general election. The party led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo then obtained 33.2% of the support and the socialists of Pedro Sánchez 33%. The barometer also recorded a rise of half a point for Sumar (10.2%) and a similar drop for Vox (7.9%). As for the Catalan independence parties, ERC, with 2.1%, recovered just over half a point, and Junts, with 1%, fell half a point. EH Bildu obtained 0.8% of the estimated vote. The PSOE and Sumar bloc (43.2%) surpassed the right-wing bloc, formed by PP and Vox, with 41.1% of voting intention.
Farmers' problems
The barometer also includes a series of questions about the recent demands of the agricultural sector, with which 60% of those surveyed say they know a lot or a lot and with which 47.3% agree completely.
57.6% of citizens assure that the protests, such as tractor movements, strikes or port blockades, have not affected them and the main problems they point out are the imbalance of prices in the chain, from the field to the table (59.4 %) and unfair competition from third countries (56.3%).
Regarding the Administration that must resolve these problems, the European Union surpasses the Government of Spain, although by a small difference. 36.6% point to the first option, compared to 35.9% who believe that the solution depends on the Executive. The autonomous communities are named by 7.5%.