(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Portugal’s governing Socialist Party (PS) has gained public backing, according to a poll by Marktest released by Diario de Noticias and TSF. 35.2 per cent of respondents would vote for the PS in the next general election, up 2.2 points since May.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) is second with 30.8 per cent, followed by the Leftist Bloc (BE) with 12.3 per cent, the Unitarian Democratic Coalition (CDU)—which includes the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and the Environmental Party "The Greens" (OV)—with 11.1 per cent, and the Social Democratic Centre / Popular Party (CDS/PP) with 6.7 per cent.

The Socialists won the February 2005 parliamentary ballot, garnering 45.3 per cent of the vote and electing 121 lawmakers to the 230-seat Assembly of the Republic. Socialist leader Socrates took over as prime minister in March. In September 2007, Luis Filipe Menezes was elected as the new leader of the right-leaning PSD.

On May 30, former High Commissioner for Immigration Rui Marques announced that he had gathered enough signatures to establish a new centrist party, called the Portugal Hope Movement. The party is expected to nominate a candidate to participate in the 2009 legislative ballot. Marques added that the movement gathered 7,500 signatures in just two months, which talks about a "great adhesion to the political proposal" of the new organization.

Polling Data

What party would you vote for in a general election?

Source: Marktest / Diario de Noticias / TSF
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 810 Portuguese adults, conducted from Jun. 17 to Jun. 21, 2008. Margin of error is 3.45 per cent.

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