Support for Spain's ruling party falls

The ruling Popular Party (PP) would win 32.1 percent of the vote in Spain if general elections were to be held now in the country, according to an opinion poll result released Wednesday.

The PP share has decreased by two points when compared with estimates published in October when the PP would win 34 percent of the vote in the country, Xinhua reported citing the poll results released by the Centre for Sociological Investigation (CIS).

The main opposition party, the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), share remained stable. PSOE would win 26.6 percent of the vote compared to the 26.8 percent published in November 2013.

According to the data, both political parties had the worst results in these surveys since the general elections in Spain were held in 2011. As a result, the distance between them was reduced from 7.2 points in November to the current 5.5 points.

The other opposition parties, left wing Izquierda Unida (IU) and center-right UPyD, would win 11.3 percent of the vote and 9.2 percent respectively with IU maintaining the percentage of votes when compared with the last study and UPyD rising from 7.7 percent to 9.2 percent.

The CIS also reported on approval rating of Spain's ministers. The lowest rate remained to be for Minister of Education and Culture Jose Ignacio Wert and Minister of Finance Cristobal Montoro.

Wert had a rating of 1.42 points, down from 1.46 of the previous rating published last November. Montoro's rating went from 2.09 to the current 1.84.

The Minister of Agriculture, Miguel Arias Canete had the highest rating with 3.17, followed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo and the Minister of Public Works Ana Pastor, who had a rating of 2.82 and 2.80 respectively.

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had a rating of 2.22 while the opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba had a rating of three. As a result, none of them gained the approval of Spain's citizens.

This data is the result of 2,480 interviews of people from 49 different provinces in Spain carried out between Jan 3 and 15 of 2014 by the CIS.