Politics: Public sours on key AMLO policies
When it comes to everything from managing the pandemic and the economic crisis all the way through to the administration’s approach to fighting corruption, public opinion is turning decidedly against the president’s claims and policies. In recent months, as Covid-19 has continued to spread, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has increasingly insisted there is no need to make the slightest modification to his original script of governmental programs, going so far as to insist that the crisis fit his governing project like a glove.
However, while the idea that a radically changing reality demands specific responses may escape the head of state, the public appears to clearly grasp the concept. In the latest GEA-ISA nationwide poll of registered voters, almost 70% of respondents said that under the circumstances López Obrador should make changes to his government programs rather than doubling down on the ones he was implementing before the pandemic. A similar degree of skepticism was apparent throughout the survey’s results. Despite administration efforts to expand hospital capacity and equipment, about 60% of those surveyed see the healthcare system and the government’s response as inadequate while also doubting the veracity of official pandemic figures, and only about a third think Mexico is handling the health emergency better than most other countries. Similar percentages give the government negative marks in its response to the economic crisis and signature infrastructure projects, which 57% said should be suspended to free up funding to bolster the country’s response to the pandemic.
The public is increasingly skeptical when it comes to the AMLO commitment to root out corruption that was at the heart of his 2018 election victory. But that is one point on which recent developments provide the administration great opportunities to redeem itself. The decision by former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya to end his fight to avoid extradition from Spain and instead work with Mexican prosecutors investigating evidence of a web of fraudulent operations at the highest echelons of the administration of AMLO’s predecessor, ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto, could give the government an advantage. Central figures in other corruption scandals from that period are also awaiting extradition to Mexico. The question is - will the government be any more successful in exploiting such cases than it has been on other major policy fronts?
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