Approval of Argentine president pandemic policies eroding, but concern with the virus is still very strong

Tuesday, July 14th 2020 - 09:58 UTC

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Support for president Fernandez stood close to 80% since the start of the pandemic in March but in mid May it started to lose ground

Approval of Argentine president Alberto Fernandez handling of the pandemic continued to slide during the last week and is at levels similar to those at the start of the quarantine, according to the latest opinion poll from Poliarquia made public over the weekend in Buenos Aires daily La Nacion.

However support of the measures to combat the virus, particularly the quarantine remains high although it has started to erode and social consensus is gradually more aligned with the different political standings in the capital Buenos Aires and the province of Buenos Aires.

In effect support for president Fernandez stood close to 80% since the start of the pandemic in March but in mid May it started to lose ground, in the second week of July it stood at 59%, three points less than the first week o the month, 62% and five less than the last week of June, 64%. Quite a distance from 84% in mid April.

Poliarquía points out that Fernandez support has been eroding for the last two months but it became more serious in recent weeks as politics and the so called “social gap” takes a more outstanding position following the government's announcement intent to expropriate a soybean crushing company, plus differences with the main opposition group belonging to ex president Mauricio Macri, “Together for change”.

And in effect the main loss of support of the Argentine president came from Macri followers who at the start of the pandemic approved of the quarantine and other measures taken by government. At the start of the pandemic president Fernandez had the approval of 70% of those who had voted for Macri last October, but in recent weeks that support eroded down to 24%, ten points less than a week ago. But the president still has the overwhelming support, 87%, of those who voted for him and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the Front for All. If any loss it has been eight points since the presidential peak in mid May and two points down from last week.

Regarding Fernandez performance disapproval it has been growing and is now at pre-pandemic level. This means 31% do not approve of Fernandez, two points more than last week. During the first week of March it stood at 34%, and by mid March, 40%.

It must be remembered that the capital Buenos Aires and its mayor Horacio Rodriguez Larreta is overwhelmingly pro Macri and his open economy policies, while the province of Buenos Aires (and much of metropolitan Buenos Aires) is the turf of Cristina Fernandez and her populist hand out policies.

But leaving aside the approval or eroding approval of government, Argentine public opinion is increasingly worried about the advance of the pandemic in the country, particularly the death toll and number of infections.

The poll indicates that 44% of those interviewed were “most worried” with the advance of the virus, while 35%, “quite worried”. Likewise, 12% said they were a “little worried” and 3%, not at all. The highest concern took place at the end of March when the first quarantine, but as 17 July approaches, deadline for the extended quarantine, of almost four months, isolation results vary differently according to geography, particularly in metropolitan Buenos Aires where the number of dead and contagion keeps increasing while in the capital Buenos Aires it is less evident.

In effect social consensus regarding support for isolation measures is 64% in the capital against 72% in metropolitan Buenos Aires and 59% in the rest of Argentine provinces. As to the extension of the quarantines, support is still mostly positive but it begins to lose ground as concern about economic activity starts to grow. The motto of the government has been privilege health over the economy, but this position has eroded from 61% to 58%. This concludes Poliarquia, seems to be the case because most of those interviewed, 55%, believe the virus will continue to advance and are not convinced that the so called peak of contagion has been reached and is downhill is round the corner, 32%.