MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Majority of Spaniards against a re-run of election; only 7% would change their vote says poll

Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP) won the most votes but lost its parliamentary majority, with the opposition Socialists (PSOE) in second place.

Less than one third of Spaniards want a re-run of 20 December's election, which resulted in a stalemate, with two-thirds favoring a pact between parties, a poll showed. Just 7% of those surveyed said they would change their votes in a fresh election, while 87.1% said they would vote the same way.

President Mariano Rajoy's conservative People's Party (PP) won the most votes in Sunday 20 December election but lost its parliamentary majority, with the opposition Socialists (PSOE) in second place. Both lost ground to newcomers, the liberal Ciudadanos and left-wing Podemos.

Only 1.4% of PP supporters would change their vote in a new election while 6.8% of those who backed the PSOE would vote for a different party, the poll showed.

Of those surveyed, 27% said they would prefer to see Rajoy remain as prime minister while 26% said Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias should replace him.

The poll of 1,200 people was carried out last week by Invymark for the television channel La Sexta.

In his traditional Christmas address to the nation, King Felipe called for tolerance of political diversity.

The monarch, whose approval ratings are far higher than any politician's, warned of the dangers of one group imposing its ideas on others.

”(This) has only led us historically to decadence, impoverishment and isolation. This is an error of our past which we must not commit again,“ he said, in an apparent reference to Spain's 1939-1975 Francoist dictatorship.

King Felipe called for economic growth which provides ”dignified work ... and allows inequalities, accentuated by the depth of the economic crisis, to be reduced.”