President López Obrador set aside a few minutes for boasting at the tail end of his morning press conference on Wednesday,  presenting a graph published in a British newspaper that showed he is the second most popular of 13 world leaders.

“This is to show off to you a little bit,” he told reporters before flashing a broad grin.

“… A newspaper, which is like Reforma, it’s called The Financial Times, now recognizes … that we’re in second place, we have the silver medal, the government of Mexico. Only the president of India is beating us, look,” López Obrador said, referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by an incorrect title.

A graph projected onto a screen showed the latest figures from the Global Leader Approval Rating Tracker, developed by the data intelligence company Morning Consult.

The tracker, whose approval ratings are based on a seven-day moving average of the results of surveys conducted with adult residents in 13 countries, currently shows that López Obrador’s approval rating is 65%.

With an approval rating of 71%, Modi is the only leader who is more popular than AMLO, as Mexico’s president is widely known. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has the third highest approval rating, followed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and United States President Joe Biden.

The Brazilian, British, Japanese, French, Canadian, South Korean, Australian and Spanish leaders are also included on the tracker.

“Can’t you enlarge it, really, really big?” López Obrador asked an aide, referring to the projected graph.

“This is for the file of vanities. Our adversaries will say ‘He’s an egomaniac,’ but our adversaries – those high up, the elites, consider a newspaper like this the Bible,” he said.

The president said that “fifís” – a buzzword he uses for people with money — hold newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and Reforma, a Mexican broadsheet he frequently rails against, in similarly high esteem.

“But look, we’re in second place; there it is,” López Obrador said, his gaze fixed on the graph.

“I emphasize this because it’s not me. It’s the trust of the people, and it’s pride for Mexico. Our country is well-rated in the world, and it’s an honor to be Mexican, an honor,” he said.

Mexico News Daily