(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Cristina Fernández de Kirchner holds the lowest rating of her tenure, according to a poll by Poliarquía Consultores. Only 20 per cent of respondents have a positive opinion of the president, down 27 points since March.

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 Kirchner 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 more than three weeks. Grain shipments stopped completely, creating food shortages across the country. Despite a brief period of calm, the protests and organized roadblocks continued.

On Jun. 20, Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri expressed dismay at the current state of affairs, saying, "The country is in hibernation, it’s in a coma due to the conflict with farmers. We need to put Argentina to work again. The problem is not whether the government emerges stronger from this dispute, but whether Argentina emerges stronger."

Polling Data

Do you have a positive or negative opinion of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner?

Source: Poliarquía Consultores
Methodology: Interviews with 1,000 Argentine adults, conducted from Jun. 2 to Jun. 10, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

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