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Young Spaniards turn left in lead-up to EU poll

The Local Spain
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Young Spaniards turn left in lead-up to EU poll
A March 2014 union protest in favour of a European Union with a stronger social welfare focus. File photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The majority of Spain's crisis-hit young voters are planning to vote for the country's opposition left-wing parties in the upcoming European elections, a new poll shows.

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Spain's two major parties are neck and neck in the lead-up to the May 25th European elections, the poll published in national daily El País shows.

A total of 32.6 percent of all Spanish voters are planning to cast their ballot for the country's ruling conservative Popular Party (PP), while the main opposition socialist party PSOE is very close behind with 32.2 percent.

SEE ALSO: The A to Z of Spanish politics: A handy guide

Among voters under 35 years of age however, the divide is much wider.

Some 28.8 percent of Spain's this group which have been hard hit by the crisis said they planned to vote for the socialists but just 22.6 percent want the right-wing PP to win.

The third major player in the vote is the left-wing Izquierda Unida party, and here too, there is stronger support among young voters, although the difference is smaller.

Overall support for the party is running at 12 percent, while 14.2 percent of voters under 35 say they will vote for the party which represents green, socialist and republicans interests.  

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Some 59 percent of Spain's young voters agreed that the European elections were necessary to improve and change the country, but 38 percent said this was not the case.

A high 64 percent, meanwhile, said their standard of life was lower than that of their parents.

Unemployment among young Spaniards is currently 55 percent and many have left the country in search of opportunities abroad.

Almost a quarter of all Spaniards aged from 15 to 29 who have completed secondary education are neither working nor studying, the OECD said in 2013. 

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