Socialist election victory near impossible, says latest poll

With two weeks to go until Spain's general elections, a poll released Friday shows that the Popular Party (PP) is expected to make strong gains in Congress by winning as many as 195 seats in the 350-member chamber, 19 more than the 176 needed for an absolute majority.

The Socialists are predicted to win between 116 and 121 seats, according to the Center for Sociological Research (CIS).

The state-run CIS interviewed 18,000 people last month for this latest survey. The results of the poll put the PP candidate Mariano Rajoy ahead of the Socialists' Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba by 16.7 points.

The opposition has more than doubled its lead over the ruling party since a CIS poll released in July, which showed the PP with a 7.1-point lead over the Socialists.

Battered by a 21.5-percent unemployment rate, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero's government has taken the brunt of the blame for Spain's economic woes.

Saying his goodbyes to other world leaders meeting in Cannes for the G20 summit, Zapatero said Friday that while he was satisfied with having been able to steer Spain away from an EU bailout, it still was no consolation for the fact that five million Spaniards are out of a job.

Speaking at a news conference, the prime minister acknowlegded that he made "decisions that weren't so easy," given that they have affected the lives of many Spaniards. If Spain wasn't able to look for financing through the markets, he said, the other alternative would have been a bailout with "very painful adjustments."

Antonio Barroso, an analyst with Eurasia Group consulting firm, was quoted by Reuters as saying that while the PP's electoral platform lacked detail, "a right-wing government would probably implement tough austerity measures and structural reforms that would generate considerable social discontent."