Pedro Castillo, who took office as president of Peru on July 28, is the president with the lowest popular approval for the start of administration in the country in the past 20 years.
According to a poll carried out by the Ipsos Institute for the newspaper El Comércio, the leftist is 38% accepted by Peruvians. Its rejection rate is 45%, and 17% of respondents had no opinion. The poll was released on Sunday (15).
His predecessors in power over the past two decades – with the exception of interim Congressman Francisco Sagasti – had between 55% and 60% popular approval at the start of their tenure.
Castillo obtained 18.82% of the vote in the first round in April and was elected in June with a small margin on the right Keiko Fujimori: he obtained 50.13% of the vote.
Castillo’s rejection is particularly concentrated among Peruvians living in Lima; in the capital, their disapproval reaches 66%.
In the interior regions, where the so-called “ronderos” – militants of the “fardas campesinas”, a militia that helped eliminate the Shining Path guerrilla group – have more strength, their approval is greater. In Ayacucho, for example, where the inauguration ceremony was held, Castillo’s approval rating is 82%.
The Ipsos poll also shows a strong rejection of Guido Bellido, the Prime Minister, whose choice almost made the candidate for the portfolio of the economy, the moderate Pedro Francke, disappear. Bellido, who is under investigation for money laundering and terrorism apologies, has a 59% rejection.
Bellido is at the center of a scandal revealed by the Peruvian press, accused of having participated in a scheme to collect bribes from traders and farmers in the Junín region. The investigation into the case could harm the prime minister, who is due to receive a vote of confidence on August 26 when he is presented to Congress.
According to Ipsos, 50% of the Peruvian parliament refuses to give him the vote of confidence – 48% are in favor and 2% do not know.
The investigation also probed the opinion on a possible interference of Vladimir Cerrón in the executive. Cerrón, leader of Perú Libre, Castillo’s party, would initially be the presidential candidate, but was ultimately barred from candidacy, convicted of corruption during his tenure as governor of Junín.
Of those polled, 40% think Castillo “does what Cerrón wants”, and 57% think Guido Bellido does it.