Ciudadanos would see important but insufficient gains in a general election, according to the first survey from Spanish public research institute CIS (Centre for Sociological Research) after the 21st December Catalan election. Albert Rivera's party would get 20.7% of the vote for the Spanish Congress and draw closer to PP and PSOE, who see drops with respect to the previous survey, with 26.3% and 23.1% of the vote respectively. Fourth would be Unidos Podemos on 19% of the vote.
After the application of article 155 to Catalonia, if an election were held today, the traditional two largest parties of Spanish politics would remain in the lead. Ciudadanos would note the effect of their victory in the Catalan election (3.2 points more than the previous survey) but this increase wouldn't allow them to move beyond third place. They do gain ground however: PP would lose two points with respect to November's results and PSOE one.
Rivera's party would, for the first time, get over 20% of the vote according to CIS, which would allow them to pass Unidos Podemos, who hadn't been below third place since the 2016 general election. In fact, if the forecast were to prove true, Ciudadanos would manage to increase their electoral share by more than seven points: from 13.1% in the 2016 election to an estimated 20.7% today.
This survey from CIS is especially important to understand the Spanish political scene because it's the first to include voter intention and estimated vote since the Catalan Parliament election in December last year won by the pro-independence parties but which saw Ciudadanos impose themselves within the pro-union bloc, sending the traditional parties, especially PP, to moderated results.
As for opinions of the leading politicians, none of them does well. Unidos Podemos's Pablo Iglesias has the worst rating, 2.54 out of 10, whilst Ciudadanos's Albert Rivera snatches first place from Izquierda Unida's Alberto Garzón, but still on only 4.01. Next is PSOE's Pedro Sánchez on 3.68 ahead of prime minister Mariano Rajoy who gets 2.87.