Andrés Manuel López Obrador began his presidency on December 1, 2018, enjoying soaring popularity.
Although that has decreased from the earliest levels, he has largely maintained strong support, unlike his recent predecessors.
AMLO took office with an approval rating of 71 percent, according to the AS/COA Online tracker, rising rapidly to 81 percent after just two months in office. Such highs were never going to be sustainable, and although his rating dropped to a low of 60 percent in August 2020 (during the Covid pandemic), it has since stabilized to around 67 percent, the best showing at this stage of the country’s past five presidencies.
Contrast that with Enrique Peña Nieto, who began his presidency in 2012 with an approval rating of 54 percent, but finished it at a miserable 23 percent, according to AS/COA.
After bringing an end to the 70-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000, President Vicente Fox enjoyed an approval rating of 74 percent, but ended his six-year term on 61 percent.