Almost two-thirds of Mexicans support President López Obrador, a new poll indicates.
Conducted by the polling firm Mitofsky for the newspaper El Economista, the poll found 65% approval for the president, his highest rating since April 2019.
The only month since López Obrador took office in December 2018 when he had a higher approval rating was February 2019, when it hit 67%.
The president’s popularity has been trending upwards in recent months after reaching a 2021 low of 57% on the monthly El Economista poll in July.
His approval rating rose one point to 58% in August, jumped five points to 63% in September and increased another point to 64% last month before adding an additional point in November.
The gains come after the ruling Morena party won June’s lower house mid-term election but lost the supermajority it enjoyed with its allies. The president’s rising popularity coincides with the recovery of the economy from last year’s steep pandemic-induced slump, an annual reduction in homicide rates and a fall in coronavirus case numbers since the third wave peak in August.
Among the six most recent presidents, López Obrador has the second highest approval rating after three years in office. Only Carlos Salinas, widely considered one of Mexico’s most corrupt presidents, had a higher approval rating – 77% – halfway through his six-year term.
The results of the poll, conducted over the internet with more than 34,000 respondents, showed that AMLO, as the president is best known, finds his strongest support among campesinos, or small-plot farmers. Almost 83% of campesinos said they approved of the president’s performance, while 72% of informal sector workers – such as street vendors – said the same.
Businesspeople and professionals expressed the lowest levels of approval at 47.6% and 50.3%, respectively.
Poll results also show that López Obrador has at least 60% support in 22 of Mexico’s 32 states. His approval rating is 50-59% in eight states and 40-49% in two – Jalisco and Querétaro.
The survey posited that a lot of the problems AMLO inherited from previous governments persist and asked respondents how much longer the president needs to solve them.
Those polled were given four options. The most popular was “he needs to finish his six years before he is judged,” with 43.7% of respondents choosing it, followed by “he will never achieve it” (26.8%); “he already managed to improve the country” (24.1%); and “he needs one more year before being judged” (2.1%).
With reports from El Economista
