MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

President Kirchner still going strong

Argentine president Nestor Kirchner public opinion support stands at 73%, eleven points less than in April, according to the latest poll from Ipsos-Mora & Araujo published in this Sunday's edition of La Nacion.

As to performance 48% of those polled support President Kirchner administration performance, albeit 11 points less than a year ago when he took office.

Fighting corruption and foreign policy are the administration's main successes; however insecurity and unemployment are pending, and growing, problems for the administration.

In April an opinion poll from Consultants Analogias indicated that 84,6% of Argentines had a positive opinion of the Argentine president. Similarly another opinion poll from April done by OPSM showed that 78,7% of Argentines had a good opinion of Mr. Kirchner.

Almost half of those interviewed by Mora & Araujo, 46%, said that "opposition" to the government was insufficient and another 45% believe things will improve next year.

Only 7% had a negative opinion of Mr. Kirchner's administration although 56% described the official policies to bring down unemployment "insufficient".

Almost 1,7 million Argentine are out of a job, which represents 16,3% of the country's work population, according to the latest report from the Statistics Office last December. This does not include the heads of family subsidized programs which are a considerable number.

One of the weakest points of the administration is insecurity or the lack of security given the spate of kidnappings and corruption among law enforcement officers.

Actually 62% of those interviewed have a negative opinion of the government's security policy, but 55% have a positive image of the new security program currently being enforced by the Kirchner administration including the sacking of hundreds of officers.

Economic policy is considered "not good, not bad" by 48% and 43% of those interviewed openly criticized education policies.

For the Mora & Araujo team responsible for the opinion poll, President Kirchner's standing has two main components, performance and results on the one side and future prospects on the other.

However it's the first component that shows the greatest deterioration.