One of the most important factors for a politician is, without a doubt, their level of acceptance in the polls. No price can be put on the feeling that comes along with being appreciated at your job, and even less so when you are trying to distinguish yourself among other people in your government, party or ideology.
However, Mexico is going through an exceptionally new situation, as we have a president who from the first moment that he decided to be the symbol of our country and began to promote his reforms, announced that he would never govern for surveys.
In this sense, he had a lot of success, because now the surveys confirm that Enrique Peña Nieto is the president with the least amount of public acceptance of the last four presidents in the country.
But in the middle of the Ayotzinapa situation, I think that the most important thing is not necessarily to confirm the existence of polls, like that recently presented by the Reforma newspaper, which marked an all time low in our president’s popularity, who registered at only 30 percent acceptance among citizens.
Because from my perspective, the most important thing is the way in which someone so famous like Peña Nieto, who gained popularity among female voters to win the presidency, ended up refusing the exchange with his people that surveys bring about.
What is a government like that doesn’t let polls influence it? It is what Mexico looks like right now. In this context, it is a shame that the cabinet knows so well that old phrase by Francisco I. Madero, “effective suffrage, not reelection.”
In the case of Peña Nieto, he already had the presidential sash, but those that are still waiting for it care about the polls. This is something that makes us live in the paradox of having a president on the floor, while some secretaries are elevated to heavens.
All of this forms a part of the political game, but it also forms a part of our conscience as a people and in the way in which we decide how to condemn the boss and save the executioners.
Now, how much longer will our president live in the margin of the surveys? It’s not important anymore, because, at the end of the day, since we gave our contribution as a country to modern history through reforms and through a “Pact for Mexico,” we haven’t had any more politics.
