Spain’s population divided on government management of coronavirus crisis

SPANIARDS are divided on the government’s management of the coronavirus crisis.

A survey published today, Wednesday, reveals while nearly half the population think the government is doing a really good job, more or less the same proportion believes the opposite.

The CIS Sociological Investigations Centre found that 47.7 per cent have “little” or “no” confidence in Pedro Sanchez’s administration’s handling of the Covid-19 health emergency, but 46.5 per cent said they have “a lot” or “quite a lot” of confidence.

Just 4.8 per cent classified the government’s efforts as “regular.”

What Spaniards are almost united on (91.4 per cent), is the need for a “special effort” to deal with the economic crisis through “grand agreements” between the political parties once the country has come out the other side of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nearly the same percentage (87.8 per cent) believe the parties and the opposition should “support the government and leave the criticisms for another time”, while just 10 per cent of those questioned said the political forces “must continue making the criticisms they consider appropriate.”

Just over half said they would like more information from the government.

At a personal level, 95.9 per cent said they are very or quite worried about the current Covid-19 situation, although 76.5 per cent are very or quite optimistic that society will defeat the virus.

Nearly everyone questioned (97.3 per cent), think the measures Spain has adopted are “necessary” or “very necessary,” and more than one in three believe the measures should be event stricter.

The latest CIS survey findings, published 10 days earlier than usual, are based on telephone interviews with 3,000 people between March 30 and April 7.