Mexican President’s Support Plumbs New Low as Gasoline Soars
- Reforma poll finds president’s approval rating sinks to 12%
- Fuel price surge this month has prompted looting, protests
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto meets during the 71st session of the United Nations in New York on Sept. 19, 2016.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s approval rating plunged to a record low after the government’s raised gasoline prices by the most in two decades, prompting the looting of department stores and near-daily public protests.
Just 12 percent of Mexicans approve of Pena Nieto’s performance, the lowest level for any president in two decades of polling going back to the peso crisis of the mid 1990s and down from 24 percent in December, according to the survey by Mexico City-based newspaper Reforma. The poll shows 27 percent of voters favor the opposition Morena party of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in next year’s presidential election, compared with 24 percent for the conservative National Action Party and only 17 percent for Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party.