A strong majority of Mexicans approve of the performance of President Claudia Sheinbaum in her first weeks as Mexico’s first female leader, according to the results of a recent poll.
A poll conducted by the newspaper El Financiero in mid and late October found that 70% of respondents approved of Sheinbaum’s work as president.
La presidenta Sheinbaum alcanza 70% de aprobación en su primer mes. #EncuestaEF https://t.co/nZXhLMNH8E pic.twitter.com/iLKCM1LB9j
— Alejandro Moreno (@almorenoal) November 4, 2024
Only 24% of those polled said they disapproved of the president’s performance while 6% of 1,000 respondents didn’t express an opinion one way or the other.
El Financiero found that the Sheinbaum administration’s continuation of existing welfare programs and its focus on women’s rights are particularly popular, while a strong majority of poll respondents rated the new president highly on the personal attributes of honesty and leadership.
Former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador maintained high approval ratings throughout his six-year presidency.
Sheinbaum, a political protégé of AMLO who won almost 60% of the vote in the June 2 presidential election, will be hoping she can maintain similar popularity throughout her six-year term.
She was sworn in as president on Oct. 1, one month after recently-elected lawmakers assumed their positions, giving the ruling Morena party and its allies strong majorities in both houses of Congress.
Policy strengths and weaknesses
The 1,000 poll respondents were asked to rate the Sheinbaum administration’s performance in seven different areas.
- Social support: 70% of those polled rated the government’s performance in this area as “very good or good.” The social support category includes things such as the payment of the old-age pension as well as support for students and the provision of employment programs including the Sowing Life reforestation initiative and the Youths Building the Future apprenticeship scheme. Just 16% of respondents described the government’s social support efforts as “very bad or bad,” while the remainder of those polled were neutral or didn’t offer a response.
- Women’s rights: 66% of respondents rated the government’s performance in this area as “very good or good,” while 20% described it as “very bad or bad.” Sheinbaum established Mexico’s first Ministry of Women, and has pledged to “continue building equality and freedom for all Mexican women.”
- The judicial reform: 49% of respondents assessed the government’s management of this issue in a positive light, while 26% expressed discontent. The judicial reform was signed into law two weeks before Sheinbaum took office. The Supreme Court is scheduled to make a ruling on the reform on Tuesday, but there appears to be a strong probability that the government won’t comply with a decision it considers unfavorable.
- Economy: 44% of poll respondents said that the government is doing a “very good or good” job with the economy, while 27% said the opposite. The Mexican economy exceeded expectations to grow 1.5% annually in the third quarter of 2024, but growth this year will be well below the 3.2% rate recorded in 2023.
- Public security: Only 28% of those polled endorsed the government’s performance in this area, while 48% assessed it negatively. The government presented a new security strategy in early October, and last week highlighted that homicides have declined. However, various parts of Mexico remain plagued by high levels of violent crime.
- Corruption: Just 21% of respondents assessed the government’s performance as “very good or good” in this area, while 60% said the opposite. The result is somewhat surprising given that Sheinbaum — following in the footsteps of AMLO — is committed to leading “an honest, honorable government without cronyism, nepotism, corruption or impunity.” She has even renamed the Ministry of Public Administration the Anti-Corruption and Good Government Ministry.
- Organized crime: Only 16% of those polled said that the Sheinbaum administration has done a “very good or good” job combatting organized crime groups, while exactly three-quarters of respondents assessed the government negatively in this area. A war between rival factions of the Sinaloa Cartel in Sinaloa and a long-running battle between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel in Guanajuato — Mexico’s most violent state — are among the security challenges the new government faces.
An honest president with good leadership skills and the ability to deliver results? Most Mexicans say yes
The results of the El Financiero poll show that almost seven in 10 respondents (68%) consider Sheinbaum an honest president, while 64% praised her for her leadership of the nation. Just 14% of those polled expressed definitive doubt about the president’s honesty, while 16% expressed negative views about her leadership skills or lack thereof.
Almost six in ten respondents (58%) were upbeat about Sheinbaum’s ability to achieve results, while just 17% were pessimistic about her capacity to deliver.
Two-thirds of those polled (67%) said they “very much” or “somewhat” approved of Sheinbaum’s “style of governing,” while 30% said they don’t like it much or at all.
What is Mexico’s ‘main’ problem?
Insecurity? The state of the economy and unemployment? Or corruption?
Poll respondents were asked to choose between those three options when responding to this question: “What is the main problem in the country today?”
Two-thirds of respondents (66%) nominated insecurity, while just 11% chose the economy and unemployment and 6% opted for corruption.
While homicides declined in the second half of López Obrador’s presidency, his six-year term was the most violent on record, underscoring the security challenges faced by the Sheinbaum administration.
In addition to murders, serious crimes such as kidnapping, extortion and violence against women (including femicide and rape) are significant problems in Mexico.
While the Mexican economy will slow in annual terms this year, unemployment remains low at 2.9% of the economically active population in September.
With reports from El Financiero
