Immigration and the amnesty law focused the 9J campaign in Spain

Madrid  –  Immigration, the Amnesty Law promoted by the Government to benefit those convicted and prosecuted in the Catalonia independence process and the wife of the President of the Government of Spain were the topics that marked the electoral campaign for the European Parliament elections in Spain, as reflected in the post-electoral study conducted by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) of Spain.

These have been the three most repeated responses by those surveyed when asked about the most debated topics by the different parties and candidates throughout the electoral campaign for the June 9 elections, which gave victory to the PP.

Specifically, of the 3,010 respondents between June 17 and 21, 13.1% considered that the main issue was immigration. It is a matter that has dominated the European debate in the past year, with the EU giving the green light to the reform of the Migration and Asylum policy.

Secondly, 5.7% of the respondents said that the ‘Organic Amnesty Law for institutional, political, and social normalization in Catalonia’ centered the electoral campaign debate.

Finally, 5% cited the debate topic of Begoña Gómez, wife of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. During the campaign, Gómez was summoned to testify at the Court of Instruction No. 41 for alleged crimes of influence peddling and business corruption.

The fourth and fifth topics mentioned were national issues (4.8%) and the rise of the far-right (4.4%), and 29.1% of citizens said they did not know what the most debated topics were. 

On the other hand, 76.5% of the respondents who mentioned any of the most debated topics in the campaign considered them to be ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important. In fact, national issues are those that Spaniards consider most when deciding their vote in these elections, with 64.1%.

The sociological institute presided over by socialist sociologist José Félix Tezanos also took advantage of this post-electoral survey to determine whether citizens changed their vote for the elections.

On this occasion, 86% of the participants said they had not changed it. Moreover, half of the respondents (55.3%) said they decided their vote “long before” the start of the electoral campaign and the majority of them (94.3%) said they would maintain their vote even after knowing the results.

The CIS also wanted to know the influence of the polls or electoral surveys when deciding the vote. Two out of three respondents (66.5%) said they were aware of the results forecasted by the surveys, but the majority (84.2%) said they took that information into account ‘little’ or ‘not at all’ when choosing their ballot.

On the other hand, the study shows the shifting trend in how the public is informed, as despite television remaining the main source of information with 61.2%, the second and third places are occupied by social media (37.4%) and digital press (37%).

Among the most used social networks are Instagram with 44.2%, X (formerly Twitter) with 39.1% of responses, and Facebook with 37.6%. (July 9)