MADRID, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has slightly extended its lead in the opinion polls in the wake of the Nov. 10 general elections, said a study published by the Spanish Center for Sociological Research (CIS) on Thursday.
A total of 4,800 people who participated in a survey conducted between Nov. 29 and Dec. 19 after Sanchez had confirmed that his party would form a coalition government with the left-wing Unidas Podemos alliance but before he won the investiture vote to be confirmed as prime minister just over a week ago.
The poll shows that the balance of Spain's main parties remains more or less unaltered, although the Socialists saw their support rise slightly from 28 percent of the vote on Nov. 10 to 28.3 percent.
Meanwhile, support for Unidas Podemos dropped slightly from 12.9 percent to 12.8 percent.
Among the opposition parties, the right-wing People's Party (PP) saw a decline in popularity from 20.8 percent in November to 20 percent. Public support for the extreme right-wing Vox, which claimed 52 seats in Spain's lower chamber in the election, has increased from 15.1 percent to 15.2 percent.
The CIS poll carries further bad news for the right-wing Ciudadanos, whose disastrous results on Nov. 10 resulted in their presence in the Spanish Congress being reduced from 57 seats to just ten and their vote share slashed from 15.9 percent to just 6.8 percent, causing Albert Rivera to resign as party leader.
The arrival of Ines Arrimadas as new party leader has done nothing to reverse this negative trend for Ciudadanos. If new elections were held today, the party would win just 5.6 percent of the vote.
