A perceived failure to combat crime and corruption as well as the lack of a major accomplishment are the main factors behind a slump in the approval rating of Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, a new poll shows.
Published today by the newspaper El Universal, the poll shows that 39% of respondents approve of Sheinbaum’s performance, a 15% decline since March.
A higher percentage of respondents – 42.8% – said they disapprove of the mayor’s performance, while just under 14% said they neither approved nor disapproved.
Asked to name the biggest mistake of the administration of the Morena party mayor since it took office last December, just under 30% of respondents cited the failure to combat high levels of crime.
More than three-quarters of those polled said they disapproved of the way that Sheinbaum and her administration are dealing with crime, while 86.5% said there had been minimal or zero progress in combating it.
High-impact crimes such as kidnapping and robberies of businesses have increased on Sheinbaum’s watch, and Attorney General Ernestina Godoy said last month that violence in Mexico City had reached “crisis” levels.
The mayor denied that was the case earlier this month but has now agreed to the deployment of the National Guard in five boroughs starting July 1.
Failure to combat corruption was cited by 7% of respondents as the biggest mistake of the Sheinbaum-led government, while just under 6% of those polled said it hadn’t put a foot wrong.
Other mistakes cited by respondents included the failure to combat drug trafficking, the government’s environmental policies, non-compliance with promises and the implementation (or lack thereof) of social programs. However, none of those errors was mentioned by more than 4% of respondents.
Just over 2% said the biggest mistake of the government was to have a woman in the top job, while similar percentages cited one of a failure to combat poverty, create jobs, increase access to health care, reduce traffic or improve public transportation as the number one boo-boo.
Asked to cite the greatest achievement of the six-month-old government, 36.2% of poll respondents said there wasn’t one.
Just under 12% said the implementation of social programs was the administration’s major accomplishment, while 5.5% cited its environmental policies.
Sheinbaum presented an ambitious new environmental plan this month, which aims to provide water service to every home in Mexico City in six years’ time, reduce air pollution by 30% and plant 15 million trees, among other goals.
Between 4% and 5% of respondents cited one of improvements to public services, the promotion of culture, the combatting of crime or the provision of water supply as the government’s greatest achievement.
Sheinbaum was given an average score of 5.9 out of 10 for her overall performance, a decline of 0.9 points compared to the poll published by El Universal in March.
Just under 40% of respondents believe that Mexico City will improve under the Morena party mayor’s leadership, a decline of more than 20% compared to when she took office and down 10% on March numbers.
A third of those polled said the capital will stay the same with Sheinbaum at the helm of the government, while 22% believe it will get worse.
Source: El Universal (sp)
