The new poll by Poliarquía, released this week, indicated that those who viewed the Unidad Ciudadana leader positively had improved from 30 percent last month to 33 percent this, a timely rise as the electoral campaign enters a new stage.
The Renewal Front leader scored an even bigger jump, the survey revealed. Sergio Massa’s positive image improved by six points to reach 28 percent. His potential rival for the president, Salta province Governor Juan Manuel Urtubey, however, did not score an increase.
The poll makes poor reading for the president too. His positive image rating slumped by three points from 28 percent to 25 percent, after a challenging few weeks.
Former economy minister Roberto Lavagna registered 33 percent – the same as Fern á n d e z d e K i r c h n e r – although his negative image rating scored only 15 percent, much lower than rival candidates.
ON THE OFFENSIVE
President Macri on Thursday went on the offensive, describing himself as “angry” and saying his political opponents were incorrectly promising voters that Argentina could easily recover from its current economic crisis.
“I’m angry if you hadn’t noticed. Lies have always made me angry,” the Cambiemos leader told ministers and officials at an expanded Cabinet meeting at the CCK cultural centre.
“It’s unbearable, I cannot take it anymore. We’re talking about years of harming generations of people and of throwing opportunities out of the window,” he told his officials, taking aim at former Peronist governments.
Macri said he was tired of hearing “these people who propose magical short-cuts” to solve Argentina’s economic problems.
“It is a magic solution that disconnects us, that relieves us of having to climb this mountain, which we should climb with pride, dedication and conviction,” he added.
The head of state insisted he was “more convinced than ever” about the policy direction his government has pursued since taking office in late 2015.
In an indirect criticisms of presidential hopeful Roberto Lavagna, Macri said: “I hear some people saying that this [the economy] is fixed by growing. Who doesn’t want to grow? Who doesn’t want to grow? To grow, we need to fix the basics.”
“Clearly we’ve got to pull our weight, struggle a little bit more”, Macri added, “because everything we inherited cannot be fixed from one day to the next.”
“[I’m] convinced that we’re on the right track, at the right time, because we are the generation that has come to change history forever,” he said.
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