MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Disapproval of Orsi's government climbs to 57% in the third quarter, Opción finds

The breakdown shows 30% rating the government's performance as very poor and 27% as poor, against 16% who consider it good and 3% very good

Fifty-seven percent of Uruguayans disapprove of the performance of the government led by Yamandú Orsi and 19% approve, according to the third-quarter 2026 Public Opinion Monitor released on Wednesday by the polling firm Opción. In the previous measurement the figures were 48% and 20% respectively.

The breakdown shows 30% rating the government's performance as very poor and 27% as poor, against 16% who consider it good and 3% very good. Twenty-four percent do not assess it either way and 1% did not answer. The net rating moved from -28 to -38 points.

The president's personal evaluation returns somewhat less negative figures. Twenty-two percent approve of his performance, 28% take neither view and 50% disapprove. His net rating went from -17 to -28 compared with the previous quarter. Orsi's approval is three points above the government's and his disapproval seven points lower.

The series for the term shows a sustained progression. Approval of the government's performance stood at 30% at the start of the mandate, 23% in the first quarter of 2026 and 20% in the second. Disapproval travelled the opposite path: 19%, 38% and 48%. According to the firm's analysis, the main shift lies not in the fall in support but in the contraction of the segment without a settled view, which was 51% at the beginning of the term and is now 24%.

The sharpest movement is within the governing party's own electorate. Among those who voted for the Frente Amplio in the first round of 2024, disapproval rose nine points from the previous quarter, the largest increase of the term so far, to 28%, while approval stands at 39%. Among Coalición Republicana voters, 81% disapprove and 4% approve. Those who backed other candidacies in 2024 show trends closer to opposition voters than to government supporters.

Opción argues this is the lowest level of support recorded by a Frente Amplio-led government at this point in a term. The measurement incorporates for the first time the controversy over the purchase of an official vehicle, which had not featured in the previous survey.

The poll was conducted by telephone in two stages, with 403 cases between July 16 and 20 and a further 403 between August 6 and 11, on a total sample of 806 people. The maximum margin of error is 3.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. On those parameters, the one-point change in approval is not significant, while the nine-point jump in disapproval is.