MADRID, July 30 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) of acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez would win 41.3 percent of the vote if a general election were to be held in Spain right now, according to the monthly opinion poll published by the Spanish Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS) on Tuesday.
The CIS poll comes a week after Sanchez was defeated in two investiture votes in the Spanish Congress of Deputies, with his attempts to be returned as prime minister thwarted by a failure to reach agreement with the left wing Unidos Podemos over a possible coalition government.
Although the investigation for the CIS poll was carried out before the investiture votes, it shows how the PSOE continues to gain support in the wake of the April 28 general election.
The Socialists won 123 seats in the 350-seat Congress in April general elections. If the findings of the July's CIS poll were reflected in a new general election, Sanchez would be on the verge of an absolute majority.
While the poll has good news for the Socialists, there is little comfort for Spain's other main parties in Congress.
The right wing People's Party, whose 16.7 percent of the vote in their general elections was the party's worst ever performance, see their support slip further down to 13.7 percent.
Support for Unidos Podemos falls from 14.3 to 13.1 percent, while the center-right Ciudadanos' move towards the right sees support for Albert Rivera's party slip from 15.8 to 12.3 percent.
The extreme right wing party Vox, has lost over half of its votes from April 28 with support slashed from 10.2 to 4.6 percent.
The effects of last week's investiture votes have still to be seen, but with Tuesday's CIS poll in his pocket Sanchez will have little fear of calling another general election if he is unable to find the support for a possible third investiture vote in September.
