Spanish government popularity falls further

The popularity of Spain's right wing Popular Party government led by Mariano Rajoy continues to fall, according to an opinion poll published on Sunday. The poll, which is carried out every month by Metroscope for the 'El Pais' newspaper shows that if an election were to be held now in Spain, the Popular Party (PP) would poll just 22.5 percent of the vote. That is just over half of the 44.6 percent of the vote that Rajoy's party took in the last general election which was held on November 20, 2011. The poll means that the PP vote has continued to fall and it has dropped two points last month, during which the government was forced to revise its predictions for the Spanish economy, admitting that the economy is likely to contract by 1.3 percent during the coming year. Meanwhile, the latest unemployment figures published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) show that 6.2 million Spaniards, over 27 percent of the workforce are unemployed, while the image of the PP itself has been badly tarnished by the ongoing 'Gurtel' and Barcenas' corruption scandals, which appear to confirm that the party received illegal finance for a long period of time, while important party members, including Rajoy and his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar were received extra cash 'salaries' which were never declared to the tax authorities. The opposition Spanish Socialist Party has been unable to make any progress although the PP vote continues to slide, according to the poll. With the two main parties struggling amid a loss of political confidence from the Spanish people, the left wing, Izquierda Unida's popularity has risen to 16.6 percent, just 3.8 points behind the PSOE, while the center-right Union Progreso y Democracia (UPyD) now counts on a 13 percent share in this latest poll, almost three times the share of the vote from the general election One thing the Spanish people appear to crave is a pact between parties to help resolve the crisis, but with Rajoy saying last week, that although he would welcome a pact, he would do nothing to sway his government from its policy of spending cuts and fiscal austerity.