MADRID, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The ruling People's Party (PP) of Mariano Rajoy has lost support in the wake of the Catalan independence referendum on Oct. 1, while the center-right formation Ciudadanos has made gains, according to the latest quarterly opinion poll published by the Spanish Center for Sociological Investigation (CIS) on Tuesday.
The poll was carried out from Oct. 2 to 11, just after the referendum, which was declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court, but before the declaration of independence made by the Catalan regional parliament on Oct. 27 and the subsequent suspension of the region's autonomy by Rajoy's government and imprisonment of eight members of the former Catalan government last week.
The poll shows that support for the PP has fallen from 28.8 to 28 percent in the last three months.
The Socialist Party (PSOE) has also seen its support drop from 24.9 percent to 24.2 percent, as has the popularity of left-wing formation Podemos, which has fallen from 20.3 to 18.5 percent.
Ciudadanos, a party originally formed in Catalonia to oppose Catalan nationalism, appears to have taken the support lost by the other three parties and would claim 17.5 percent of the vote, three percent more than in the last poll.
Ciudadanos leader Albert Rivera is the highest rated of the leaders of the main parties, although his approval rating of 3.75 (out of 10) is not high. He ranks above PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez (3.61), Rajoy (3.02) and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias at 2.67.
The poll also looked at the major worries facing Spaniards. Despite the long-running Catalan crisis, unemployment is still the biggest problem, cited by 66.2 percent of respondents, well ahead of Catalonia (29 percent) and corruption (28.3 percent).
