LISBON (Reuters) - Portugal's ruling centre-right coalition took the lead over the centre-left Socialists in a poll published on Wednesday, breaking a dead heat which had lasted for months.
The poll put the two parties in government, the Social Democrats and junior partners the CDS-PP, at a combined 38.9 percent, up from 37.8 percent in July.
The Socialists slid to 33.3 percent from 38 percent, according to the poll by Aximage pollsters published in business daily Jornal de Negocios.
This is the first poll to show a decisive break in any direction for any side and suggests the centre-right coalition would be re-elected despite the harsh austerity introduced by the government during a bailout by international lenders.
A bigger poll published last Friday showed the two sides with just 1 percentage point between them.
The Aximage poll surveyed 602 people between Sept. 4-7 and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
(Reporting by Axel Bugge; Editing by Alison Williams)
