After the president of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, faked his resignation for five days in front of all of Spain, the long-awaited survey from the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) arrived. A “flash” poll devised by Jose Felix Tezanos and that, once again, he came to fly the socialist flag. Without complexes and with an open face, the survey gave a radical change and placed the PSOE as the leader, with 9.4 points of advantage over the PP of Alberto Núñez Feijóo. Let's call it the “letter effect”, let's call it “manipulation”, the fact is that in just one month, the socialists have gone from being “second” to recovering a whopping ten points and being in the lead.
Controversy haunts every opportunistic survey that Tezanos conducts with taxpayers' money. And being in the eye of the hurricane makes many people wonder what the salary of the president of the CIS is and how much money the institution manages, since we must not forget that it is a public organization that must measure the feelings of the citizens, not an instrument at the service of the PSOE and, more specifically, its general secretary.
According to the latest official data José Félix Tezanos receives a gross annual salary of 97,764 euros, divided into 14 monthly payments of 6,983.14 gross euros. He is thus ahead of Pedro Sánchez, whose salary, according to the 2023 Budgets, amounts 90,010.20 euros per year divided into twelve monthly payments, without extra payments. Or what is the same, 7,500 euros per month. In short, the president of the CIS earns 7,753 euros more than the head of the Executive.
And once this question is resolved, we move on to the next one. How much money does the Government Sociological Research Center receive? Well, although initially the Executive had planned to allocate 12.66 million euros for 2023, in March of that same year the Council of Ministers decided to approve an increase of 3.28 million euros, making a total of 15.94 million euros by 2023. A figure that is double what was budgeted in 2018, with Mariano Rajoy at the head of the Executive.
Not to mention the controversy generated by its change in method and historical series, as well as the periodicity of the surveys. Before their arrival they made four studies a year, but now one is carried out every month, with the disbursement that this entails, as demonstrated by the figures cited above. It is not a trivial matter, since according to experts there are already private companies that pay monthly and analyze public opinion.