DYM – Market Research

The majority of Spaniards are in favor of lowering the price of energy, according to the DYM survey.
The vast majority of Spaniards, up to 87.1%, demand an immediate reduction in energy taxes to lower the prices of electricity, gas and fuel. The priority, moreover, is for this reduction to be reflected in the electricity bill (51.4%) and in the cost of filling up the gas or diesel tank (38.3%), with the price per liter having shot up to two euros.

The Council of Ministers on March 29th will approve these reductions, as announced last Wednesday by the Minister of the Presidency, Felix Bolaños, whether or not a joint agreement is reached with the rest of the Community partners after the European Council to be held between today and tomorrow. The date, however, seems distant for the bulk of citizens, who urge the Executive to take solutions to alleviate a situation fueled by the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

These are the data provided by the survey carried out by DYM for 20minutos, where only 7.4% of those polled reject the need to undertake such tax cuts and 5.5% are indifferent. It is the voters of Unidas Podemos who reject in greater proportion (16.3%) that these reductions take place, although four out of five of their voters are in favor. Vox voters, on the opposite margin, adopt an almost unanimous position (95.4%) in favor of the Government addressing this reduction, closely followed by those of the PP (92.7%). Both parties supported the massive demonstration last Sunday in Madrid in vindication of the rural world, where some of the most recurrent banners dealt with this problem. Vox, in addition, tried to patrimonialize the protests by calling its own rally on Saturday, under the slogan ‘We have to kick them out’.

Among those surveyed, it is also observed that electricity (51.4%) is the most sensitive bill, the first to be lowered by the Government to relieve the situation. Curiously, only Vox voters consider that it is more important to reduce the price of fuel (51.2%) than electricity (47%). In addition, Socialist and Popular voters surveyed demand a lowering of electricity prices in an identical proportion: 50%.

Only 6.7% of those surveyed consider lower gas prices to be a priority compared to fuel and electricity bills. Those who most nourish this segment are the voters of the Popular Party (9.5%) and those of Vox (0.5%), the least. A peculiar dichotomy among right-wing voters.

“It is going to be a very broad and very ambitious package”, assured Bolaños last week about measures that will focus on “households, entrepreneurs, self-employed and families”. The Government, which began that same day the round of contacts with the rest of the political forces, has not yet specified what it will consist of. The economic vice-president, Nadia Calviño, assured this week that the “priority objective” was to “cap the price of electricity”, something that the Minister of Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, ruled out without an agreement with the European partners. United Podemos, meanwhile, demands that this drop be up to 75 euros.