MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trust in Uruguayan President falls amid bodyguard scandal

The survey detected a steady drop in Lacalle's approval since November 2021

Popular mistrust of Uruguay's President Luis Lacalle Pou has been reported to be on the rise after his bodyguard Alejandro Astesiano's involvement in the issuance of Uruguayan passports to Russian nationals for a fee became known.

According to the consulting firm Factum's document released Monday, mistrust of President Lacalle Pou hit 56%, while only 41% of those consulted supported the head of state.

Of those disapproving of Lacalle, 34% spoke of “very little confidence,” 22% expressed only “little confidence,” 17% said they had a lot of confidence in him, and 24% had a great deal of confidence.

When these results with the 2019 elections in which Lacalle was chosen, only 5% of the voters say they trust the president a lot or quite a lot, while 94% trust him a little or very little.

Among those who did vote for Lacalle's Multicolor ticket in 2019, 72% trusted him a lot or quite a lot, while those who expressed little or very little trust amounted to 25%.

Between February and September of 2021, trust in Lacalle shifted between 49% and 52%, and distrust was between 45% and 50%. On average, those who trusted the head of government outnumbered those who distrusted him, Factum noted.

It also pointed out that since November last year there has been a slight but systematic drop among those who said they trusted President Lacalle Pou and an increase in those who said they did not trust him.

The Factum report concluded that ”the president built a significant degree of trust during the first 18 months of government, basically sustained by a strong trust among voters of the parties that make up the government coalition, and with a low level of trust among voters of the [opposition] Frente Amplio (Broad Front).“

”After that first period, around the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the level of confidence in the president began a slight but systematic deterioration, mainly explained by a fall among the voters of the coalition parties.“

The consultancy firm detected a steady drop in Lacalle's approval since November of 2021. ”The president built a significant degree of trust during the first 18 months of his government, basically sustained by a strong trust among the voters of the parties that make up the government coalition, and with a low level of trust among the voters of the Frente Amplio (Broad Front). After that first period, around the end of last year and the beginning of this year, the level of confidence in the president began a slight but systematic deterioration, mainly explained by a fall among the voters of the coalition parties,” Focus wrote.