MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A clear majority of Uruguayans optimistic about President Mujica’s government

In spite of the positive attitude, President Mujica will have to tackle public opinion “obsession” with security issues

A clear majority of Uruguayans, 61% is optimistic about the future and believes that the government of President Jose Mujica will “be good or very good”, according to the latest Equipos Mori public opinion poll released this week.

The 61% positive outlook includes 92% of the ruling coalition Broad Front voters and 33% of voters from the opposition National and Colorado parties.

According to the poll over half the Uruguayan population feel that public security is the major problem to be faced by the administration of President Mujica and 45% believe he will adopt the correct measures to face the challenge.

Equipos Mori director Ignacio Zuaznabar said that President Mujica took office “with an extended climate of optimism about how he will manage to perform at the head of the new government which took office March first”.

Only 18% of interviews had a pessimist or negative view of the coming years while 20% said that the Mujica administration will “not be good or bad”.

However Zuaznabar pointed out that the level of optimism “is below that of five years ago when former president Tabare Vazquez took office in 2005”, the first time the catch-all left leaning coalition won a presidential election in Uruguay.

“In that context more than optimism there was euphoria and great expectations about what the first left-wing government in Uruguay’s history was to achieve. The climate now is optimistic but without the intensity of five years ago”, said Zuaznabar.

More specifically as to the agenda of priorities for 2010, an absolute majority of Uruguayans mentioned “public security”, followed by education, 14%; the economy 10%; combating corruption, 9% and tax rebates, 9%.

The poll confirms that public perceptions on security have improved “a bit in the last few months” compared to mid year 2009, but the issue continues to concentrate an overwhelming majority, “almost an obsession”.

In fact a similar question back in 2005 when former president Vazquez took office, only 2% of Uruguayans felt public security was a national priority, said Zuaznabar. In five years the issue has rocketed to become a national priority.

Regarding education, there is also ample optimism as to how President Mujica is to address the issue: over 53% believe that education conditions will improve; 28% feel the situation will remain unchanged and 8% that it will become worse.

But the most controversial issue remains public security, although 45% believe a Mujica administration will tackle the situation, an almost similar percentage 41% is not positive about the outcome. It includes 27% who consider the situation will remain unchanged and 14% who think it will worsen.

“For the government it’s not at all bad that expectations about improvements in public security are limited because it takes the social pressure. But it is also one of the outstanding, almost the main issue on which Uruguayans will assess the performance of the new government in the coming quarters”, points out Zuaznabar.