Some 85 percent of Spaniards are in favour of Mariano Rajoy leaving the leadership of the government, a view shared by 62 percent of his voters, a survey by the Metroscopia firm revealed today.
The poll, published in the Sunday edition of the newspaper El País, adds to others that reflect the wear suffered by the president of the conservative Popular Party (PP), especially after the escalation of the independence challenge in Catalonia.
Carried out this week from a thousand 321 interviews, the survey also notes that 65 percent of those consulted want the PP to stop being the force that governs this European country.
Of 62 years and the most veteran of the Spanish political leaders, Rajoy assumed the control of its formation in 2004 and lost the general elections of that year and those of 2008 against the socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
In December 2011, he arrived at the Palacio de La Moncloa (executive headquarters) on his third attempt and revalidated the position in 2016, thanks to the abstention of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), which facilitated a government of his, but in a minority.
The 62 percent of those consulted by Metroscopia, especially followers of the PP (85 percent), estimate that the economy of the Iberian nation is improving.
However, more than half – 53 percent – disassociate that progress from the decisions taken by the ruling right, compared to 42 percent who attribute all the merit to the popular.
The study shows that the chief executive does not seem to benefit from the whole of his main argument, the economic recovery of Spain after the financial meltdown of 2007.
For El Pais, the erosion of the management of the economic crisis, the numerous cases of corruption within the PP and the irruption of Podemos and Ciudadanos, which broke the bipartisanship (PP-PSOE), made a dent in the image of the President of the Government.
Recently, Rajoy stressed that he wants to exhaust his mandate until 2020, but the weakness of his administration, now in the minority, and the management of the Catalan territorial conflict, are shaking his figure.
To the extent that the voters of the PP point out the exit door and consider that their time has already passed, highlighted the newspaper from Madrid.