Spain's ruling Socialists lead in state — run poll ahead of snap election

MADRID, Oct 14 (Reuters) — Spain's ruling Socialist Party (PSOE) would win 34% of the vote if elections were held now, well ahead of the opposition People's Party (PP) on 22.2%, according to an October survey by state-run pollster CIS published on Wednesday. The poll comes ahead of Spain's snap elections next month, called by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez after parliament rejected his minority government's housing measures. The CIS findings stand in contrast to most other polls, which have pointed to a combined parliamentary majority for the conservative PP and far-right Vox. The survey was conducted in the first week of October among 5,025 respondents during nationwide protests over the housing crisis, but before housing activist Maricarmen Abascal, whose eviction had triggered the demonstrations, died in hospital on October 7. Far-right party Vox came third with 17.1%, while the PSOE's hard-left coalition partner Sumar, which is still negotiating alliances with other leftist parties for the elections, trailed on 6.1%, the survey showed. Sanchez remains the preferred candidate for the premiership for 39.3% of those surveyed, 24.6 percentage points ahead of PP leader Alberto Nuñez F