Politics: Political Crisis Continues to Deepen

MEXICO - Report 28 Sep 2016 by Guillermo Valdes and Esteban Manteca

The political crisis plaguing the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto and his governing party (PRI) deepened in the past three months, according to the results of the latest quarterly polling data from GEA-ISA as detailed in the report Mexico Politics, Society, and Change: Political Scenarios in the Third Quarter of 2016.

Thanks to a rapidly growing list of political missteps, cases in which political conflicts and other situations were obviously mishandled and general disarray have sent the government’s approval ratings plummeting to unprecedented lows. Thus far in 2016, Peña Nieto’s approval ratings plummeted 20 points, 11 in the third quarter and nine in the second None of these blunders sparked such widespread and vocal anger as President Peña Nieto’s recent invitation to U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to visit Mexico.

Support for Peña Nieto mainly comes from sympathizers of his party, who overwhelmingly approve of his job performance, but even among the roughly one quarter of the population that says it identifies with the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), 16% disapprove of the president’s record in office.

These levels of disapproval and discontent have severly weakened the Peña Nieto administration and represent a considerable challenge in terms of governability. So much so that the public is becoming more critical even of what had been some of the government's most popular structural reforms. A clear case in point is this year’s crisis with dissident teachers. The government does not have enough legitimacy to address the problem, and its mishandling of the police operation in Nochixtlán has eroded support for educational reform and even boosted the popularity of the CNTE.

The high level of disapproval of Enrique Peña is a phenomenon that easily has a cause and effect relation, creating a very pernicious, vicious cycle not only for the government and its ability to apply its policies and rally support, but also for the country.

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