MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Chilean president record disapproval on undelivered promise of education reform
Piñera from 63% approval when the 33 miners rescue to 53% disapproval In the aftermath of the rescue of the 33 miners trapped in the San José Mine outside Copiapó, Chilean President Sebastian Piñera’s approval rating hit its highest mark in his short term as the Andean nation’s leader at 63%.
Not only did the rescue attract fans, but many Chileans also thought the country was heading in the right direction.
As 2011 began, his public image began to slip. Approval of the controversial Hidro-Aysén project in Patagonia brought out diehard environmentalists to weekly demonstrations.
Now as two months of ongoing, and sometimes violent, protests continue to shut down Santiago’s streets and schools for the sake of national education reform, international media has spotlighted Piñera’s fall from grace.
A new poll released this week President Piñera’s approval rating fell 12 points from 47% to 35%. The survey was conducted by the Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Contemporanea (CERC), an independent non-profit research group based in Santiago.
The survey also showed his disapproval rating jump from 41% to 53%.
Piñera is the first Chilean president since the return of democracy in 1990 to be evaluated at such a high level of public disapproval.
The numbers do not surprise some Chileans.
Even Time Magazine has taken notice of the centre-right leader’s troubles. The famed U.S. publication examined his administration’s roadblocks with specific attention to the education system.
“Piñera was elected on change and he's not changing the things people wanted changed, so these protests aren't going away,” political analyst Marta Lagos told Time. “If anything, they're going to crescendo.”
Locals cited the education protests as one of the most common reasons for Piñera’s plummeting approval rating.
By Nathan Frandino – The Santiago Times
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Jul 08th, 2011 - 04:45 am 0Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines.
They Go Up, Tiddly, Up, Up.
They Go Down, Tiddly, Down, Down.
They Enchant All The Ladies And Steal All The Scenes
With their Up, Tiddly, Up, Up
And They're Down, Tiddly, Down, Down.
Up! Down! Flying Around.
Looping The Loop And Defying The Ground.
They're All, Frightfully Keen
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines. ................ ”
It is, of course, the defying the ground that leads to problems :-)
Piñera doesnt't have any Flying Machines anymore... he sold LAN ;o)
Jul 08th, 2011 - 10:44 am 0Thera are a big undercover campaing from the leftist paties to attack the Piñera's Gvt. because the country is working well, even acomplishing with proposals that rhe 20 years lestist Gvts. didn´t, as the 6 month maternity leave, educational reform with better testing results, improvement in the Santiago metropolitan transport (Transantiago), growing up GDP last fiscal year up to 6% even the biggets hearthquake in more than 60 years (with a quickly and successful reconstruction compared to other countries with softer ones), etc.
Jul 08th, 2011 - 01:30 pm 0Have anyone checked what political parties the leaders of lasthard movementes (pupils, ecologist, workers, etc.) they belong to??? Yeap, you´r right: LEFTIST, including comunist mainly and socialist (PS and PPD)...you don´t need to be tyoo clever to get that.....
Why the pupils are mixing other claims off the educational issues when the authority solve what they have asked? because the idea is to keep the pupils long term out of rooms to obtain lower results next year..., and the same with the labour unions...They are trying, in all the possible ways, to crash the succesful results and to divert the public opinion to pre-built conflicts in specific matters....but the silent majority don´t participate on that and the political oposotion parties disaproval is higher than the the Gvt. disaproval wich show us that they are in the wrong way, becuase the people is awaiting for a proposal opsition with clever ideas, future vision, and long term commitment, contrary to the selffish attitude showed until now where they are leaded just to sink this Gvt. one way or another (using the “social networks” to hide their black hands behinds)....where the the poorest get the worse piece of the cake.
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