President Martin Vizcarra’s honeymoon period is over with the Peruvian people.
In the past month, just Vizcarra’s third as president, his approval rating fell 15 points from 52 percent in May to 37 percent this month, according to the latest polling numbers from the country’s Spanish-language newspaper El Comercio.
Along with the declining approval rate, the number of people that say they outright disapprove of Vizcarra’s work so far as the leader of the country doubled to 48 percent. The former vice president was put into office in late March after former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski resigned on the eve of an impeachment vote where Kuczynski representatives were recorded trying to buy votes in his favor.
This is a sharp turn from Vizcarra’s first poll numbers, which were as high as 57 percent in April.
Last week, Vizcarra’s cabinet suffered its first major blow as his Finance Minister David Tuesta resigned amid protests for rising fuel tax proposals. The President then walked back the apparent proposals that Tuesta had on the table, which generated waves of outrage from bus and truck drivers.
Vizcarra was also heavily criticized recently for his comments following the tragic death of bus attack victim Eyvi Ágreda, when the president said, “Sometimes that’s how life is.”
In the same poll, Congress had the lowly approval rating of 14 percent and just 24 percent approve of the Judiciary Branch in Peru.
