Pew Research: Mexicans Souring on President Pena Nieto and His Government Pew Research Center
go to original August 26, 2014

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has been praised internationally for his ambitious reforms of everything from the energy sector to education to telecommunications, but a new Pew Research Center survey in Mexico finds that domestically his positive image is faltering and a key component of his political agenda – economic reform – is decidedly unpopular.

Mexicans today are evenly divided in their opinion of Peña Nieto, as negative ratings of the president’s influence have increased by nine percentage points in the past year to 47%. Similarly, negative views of the national government and Congress, both led by Peña Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), have gone up by roughly the same share over the past year, though 57% still say the national government has a positive influence.

Amid Peña Nieto’s attempts at fiscal reform, the country’s economy continues its sluggish pace, with 1% GDP growth in 2013 and less than 3% growth projected for 2014. Six-in-ten Mexicans express dissatisfaction with their country’s economy and the same percentage disapprove of Peña Nieto’s performance on economic matters. A major piece of Peña Nieto’s economic platform is to allow foreign investment in the Mexican oil and gas industry, a reform that reverses the 76-year monopoly of the state-owned petroleum company, Petróleos Mexicanos, better known as Pemex. Mexican control of the country’s natural resources, which for many Mexicans is synonymous with Pemex, is a matter of national pride. The survey asked whether foreign investment in Pemex should be allowed, and a majority (57%) opposes the idea. Peña Nieto’s efforts to combat political corruption also receive poor marks – 54% disapprove of how he’s handled this issue.

Despite these negative reviews, the public still has a significantly more positive image of their president (51% favorable) than of other major political figures, a rating driven in large part by overwhelming support among PRI partisans (83% favorable). More than half of Mexicans say that Peña Nieto is doing well at dealing with the education system (55%) and fighting organized crime and drug traffickers (53%). And a plurality (45%) thinks the national government is making progress in its campaign against the drug cartels, up from 37% last year.

These are among the key findings from the latest survey in Mexico by the Pew Research Center, which is based on face-to-face interviews conducted among a representative sample of 1,000 randomly selected adults from across the country between April 21 and May 2, 2014. The poll also finds that as the immigration debate rages on in the U.S., a plurality of Mexicans (44%) believe life is better north of the border for those who migrated from Mexico. And roughly a third (34%) still say they would move to the U.S. if they had the opportunity, including 17% of Mexicans who would do so without authorization. Nonetheless, the declining net rate of migration from Mexico to the U.S. is reflected in the percentage of Mexicans who report having a friend or family member living in the U.S. – 32% today, down from 42% in 2007.

Read the rest at Pew Research Center

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