If the election were held tomorrow, the PP would get 45.5 percent of the vote, 15.8 percentage points ahead of the ruling Socialists, the PSOE, a poll published by the center-left El Pais showed.
A poll published by the right-leaning paper El Mundo put the PP’s lead at 17.2 percentage points, the party’s biggest lead since January.
Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been in power since 2004, but his popularity has plummeted as a result of a recession which has seen unemployment rise to the highest level of any industrialized nation.
According to both polls, the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy, would secure 185 to 196 seats in the 350-seat parliament, handing the party a strong mandate to govern.
Rajoy is better able to tackle the economy and markets and inspires more confidence than Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, the veteran PSOE politician running for the Socialist ticket, according to those polled by Metroscopia on behalf of El Pais.
