A survey in Spain found six out of ten Spaniards hold a negative opinion of Spain’s current legislative term and socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government, with as many as a third strongly condemning the legislature as “disastrous,” “nefarious,” and “ruinous.”
Spain will hold new elections next year, expected to occur no later than August 22, 2027. Although the Spanish conservative People’s Party obtained the most amount of seats in the August 2023 elections, Sánchez and the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) managed to cling to power by securing alliances with minority leftist parties — allowing PSOE to secure enough votes for Sánchez’s current four year term.
PSOE and the Sánchez administration, however, find themselves navigating through an extremely complex moment as the last year of the current parliamentary term approaches. The Spanish socialists have been rocked by several corruption scandals and widespread rejection — most notably, with regards to the widely revile mass amnesty plan that saw some 1.2 million illegal migrants apply to receive “legal” status in Spain and all the benefits that it entails.
Spanish market research firm Sigma Dos held a survey for the newspaper El Mundo published on Monday whose results mark a scathing condemnation of the current socialist government. According to the study, 60 percent of Spaniards hold some form of negative opinion of the current Spanish legislature, against a minority 12 percent who finds it “good, positive, and competent.”
Out of the 60 percent majority, a group of 30.3 percent of respondents finds it “disastrous,” “nefarious,” and “ruinous.”
Furthermore, 31 percent of respondents said that they do not recognize any achievement attributable to the current Spanish government.
Other, equally condemning opinions, such as “deceitful,” “fraudulent,” “chaotic,” “unstable,” “confusing,” and “disappointing,” were reportedly espoused by the survey’s respondents.
In light of the rejection of the Spanish socialist government and the current state of the nation’s politics, as many as 41 percent believe that next year’s elections will be brought forward to anywhere during the first trimester of 2027.
El Mundo explained that the survey asked participants on their opinion on a list of decisions taken by the current legislature. Unsurprisingly, 53.6 percent of respondents expressed a negative opinion of the mass amnesty for illegal migrants.
On the subject of increasing NATO member Spain’s military spending — a point of contention for Prime Minister Sánchez — 48.4 percent reportedly expressed to support the increase against 42,2 who stand against it. 9.3 percent preferred not to answer that specific question, El Mundo pointed out.
The results published by El Mundo on Monday are part of a broader survey conducted by Sigma Dos for the Spanish newspaper. According to El Mundo, PSOE finds itself at its least favorable scenario, and are projected to lose about 17 seats in the upcoming election — a scenario that would leave the Spanish left short from being able to form a new coalition government like in 2023.
In contrast, the scenario presented by Sigma Dos suggests that the People’s Party and the Spanish populist party Vox would obtain notable parliamentary gains in next year’s elections and a comfortable margin that can lead to a prospective coalition government between both right-wing parties.