(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - The majority of people in Argentina think Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is leading the country towards the wrong direction, according to a poll by Graciela Romer y Asociados. 65 per cent of respondents say the president is on the wrong track to solve the nation’s problems, while 22 per cent say she is on the right track.

In addition, 39 per cent of respondents have a negative opinion of Mrs. Kirchner’s performance, while just 23 per cent hold positive views.

In October 2007, Fernández de Kirchner won the presidential election with 44.9 per cent of the vote as the candidate for the Front for Victory (FV). In December, Mrs. Kirchner succeeded her husband, Néstor Kirchner, as Argentina’s head of state. The outgoing president was praised for fostering an economic recovery after a major crisis in 2002. Fernández de Kirchner has vowed to address poverty and carry on with her husband’s fiscal policies.

In March, the current government introduced a variable tax on soybean exports, prompting an angry reaction by the country’s farmers. The levy replaced a fixed-rate tax and increased the price of soybeans. Farmers staged protests and organized roadblocks for several weeks. Grain shipments stopped completely, creating food shortages across the country. Despite a brief period of calm, the protests and organized roadblocks continued.

On Jul. 17, a Senate vote on the variable tax on grains finished in a tie. Argentinean vice-president Julio Cobos cast the tie-breaking vote, effectively killing the government bill. The biggest crisis faced by the current Kirchner administration prompted a cabinet re-shuffle.

On Sept. 11, just days before American investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, Fernández de Kirchner criticized the institution after it said that Argentina could possibly default on its debt within the next two years. The president declared: "Today the news in the papers, in all the papers, is the collapse of another bank far away in the United States—that bank that predicted the collapse of Argentina. (...) They should spend more time looking at their own accounts rather than looking at other countries.’’

Polling Data

Do you have a positive or negative opinion of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s performance as president?

Do you think Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is on the right track or on the wrong track to solve the country’s problems?

Source: Graciela Romer y Asociados
Methodology: Interviews with 680 Argentine adults, conducted in September 2008. Margin of error is 4 per cent.

Archive Search

Over 19,600 Polls
Search the Angus Reid Global Monitor Polls & Research archive.