El Salvador's President Bukele gets An 85% Approval Rating

[BenjaminGlover]

An opinion survey conducted by Gallup found that El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has received an approval rating of 85 percent. He is the most highly regarded Latin American leader among 11 Latin American countries ranging from Mexico to Peru, according to polls. In September 2021, the Central American country of El Salvador declared Bitcoin to be legal money. With the tactic of buying the drop, the nation has significantly expanded its Bitcoin holdings.

What do you think of this development?

[Upgrade00]

Here's a link to the news - https://elsalvadorinfo.net/nayib-bukele-approval-rate/, for those who want to review it.

What do you think of this development?

It is a political development which affects Bukele and his ambitions, it's not directly related to Bitcoin and shouldn't be in Bitcoin discussion board.
You can post this in Politics & Society board.

[Ozero]

Here's a link to the news - https://elsalvadorinfo.net/nayib-bukele-approval-rate/, for those who want to review it.

What do you think of this development?

It is a political development which affects Bukele and his ambitions, it's not directly related to Bitcoin and shouldn't be in Bitcoin discussion board.
You can post this in Politics & Society board.

All global issues of monetary circulation in the country are largely political. But this is a direct question that concerns the circulation of bitcoins in our world. President Salvador Bukele gained popularity in his country and the world thanks to his desire to boost his country's economy and make his people wealthier. He took a big risk, recognizing bitcoin in fact not only as a means of payment, but also as a national currency, which no one had done before him. With this act, he violated the world financial order and caused discontent among international financial authorities. We wish good luck to this pioneer.

[fillippone]

An italian podcaster spent more than one month in El Salvador spending only bitcoin: no usd, no credit cards, only bitcoin, both onchain and LN.
He said that the average people in El Salvador know very little about bitcoin, so I guess this astonishing level of popularity is due to other reasons than our mutual orange friend.

[DdmrDdmr]

This is the base publication that gives credit to the said 85% approval of Bukele amongst his citizens (in Spanish):
https://www.cidgallup.com/uploads/publication/publication_files/publication_1646943838000.pdf

Honestly, it seems like an exceedingly basic survey, where around 1.200 people were called on the phone between January and February of this year, and asked whether they approved their president’s management. This was performed in multiple latam countries.

The exact question is not reflected in the above document, but it doesn’t seem to go beyond asking for a yes/no type answer, with no shades of grey, nor apparent subsequent breakdown by different concepts (economy, security, bitcoin law, etc.).

[verita1]

In my opinion, the popularity of the President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele is due to the economic growth that his government has promoted. The statistics are positive as shown by the World Bank.
As long as the government responds to the needs of his people, they will support his mandate.
El Salvador has a powerful economic potential in addition to leading the world in having bitcoin as legal tender.
If the majority of the population is not educated to use it in their daily lives, they will gradually become involved in technology.

The poverty rate (based on a US$5.5 per person per day poverty line) declined from 39 percent in 2007 to 22.3 percent in 2019. Extreme poverty, measured as US$1.9 a day, declined from 13 percent in 1995 to 1.5 percent in 2019. Poverty reduction has been mostly driven by labor income and workers moving from low-paying jobs in agriculture to higher-paid jobs. In rural areas, remittances have also had a positive impact, but smaller when compared to labor income.


https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/elsalvador/overview#1

[mk4]

An italian podcaster spent more than one month in El Salvador spending only bitcoin: no usd, no credit cards, only bitcoin, both onchain and LN.
He said that the average people in El Salvador know very little about bitcoin, so I guess this astonishing level of popularity is due to other reasons than our mutual orange friend.

Heard something similar as well — that the Bitcoin-aware people are still mostly concentrated to the Playa El Zonte(a.k.a. Bitcoin Beach) area. Quite weird though knowing that the government pretty much airdropped bitcoin to the peeps.

[asus09]

Getting 85% approval, this is a very extraordinary achievement, slowly but surely Nayeb bukele was able to build their community's trust, even though at the beginning he made his decision to legalize bitcoin, and wanted to make bitcoin a legal currency, and make bitcoin a transaction tool, many were challenged by their own people, and also received threats from various countries, but finally nayeb bukele managed to restore the trust of their people, with hard work and responsibility as head of government, nayeb bukele is now the pride of their people, even other Latin American countries participated in giving appreciation to nayeb bukele.

[fillippone]

Honestly, it seems like an exceedingly basic survey

I wouldn’t bet that those surveys are polled in a much more sophisticated ways I’m other part of the world: approval ratings are usually yea/nay type of polls.

Heard something similar as well — that the Bitcoin-aware people are still mostly concentrated to the Playa El Zonte(a.k.a. Bitcoin Beach) area. Quite weird though knowing that the government pretty much airdropped bitcoin to the peeps.

Bitcoin is difficult. Not only is an interdisciplinary subject, but also involves many different aspects of life.

This  is now the most difficult part comes for El Salvador: “bitcoin education”. Orange pilling their own population.

[DapanasFruit]

I never heard a lot of negative opinions on this president and he is not accused of being a dictator like Putin. I can conclude that he is governing according to the laws and regulations of the country he is sworn to serve and protect...and maybe he is also doing a lot of progress in the economic side of things plus I think El Salvador has never been decimated that much with the pandemic. And we have to understand with that his high approval rating, we can be assured that he will not be feeling the pressure not to continue making BTC as a legal tender...and this is so vital especially since he is just like any normal politician in office. Not wholly but partly, his move making BTC as a legal tender can be a factor for his immense popularity but if he can make this decision to benefit the people like more jobs and more developments then people will really love him and Bitcoin more.

[doomloop]

An italian podcaster spent more than one month in El Salvador spending only bitcoin: no usd, no credit cards, only bitcoin, both onchain and LN.
He said that the average people in El Salvador know very little about bitcoin, so I guess this astonishing level of popularity is due to other reasons than our mutual orange friend.

Yay, you can’t do that in other countries. The reason why he was able to do that is because of the fact that Bitcoin has been declared a legal tender in El Salvador. If it wasn’t declared a legal tender, he wouldn’t be able to spend it easily. As long as it was declared a legal asset it is possible that a lot of people would get to hear and know about it in the country, because it is now the same thing as fiat in the country.

In my country you can’t spend Bitcoin at any store, you won’t even see any store accepting at all. if you check online you would be able to find someone who is accepting Bitcoin, but offline? You’re not going to find anyone at all.

[Ale88]

This is the base publication that gives credit to the said 85% approval of Bukele amongst his citizens (in Spanish):
https://www.cidgallup.com/uploads/publication/publication_files/publication_1646943838000.pdf

Honestly, it seems like an exceedingly basic survey, where around 1.200 people were called on the phone between January and February of this year, and asked whether they approved their president’s management. This was performed in multiple latam countries.

I read the document and I'm not sure that those people were actually interviewed on the phone rather than they were adults that own(ed) a mobile phone: "muestra representativa de la población adulta con teléfono celular". That's the way I understand that part. Anyway I never believe the polls, 85% looks way too high. I'm also impressed by the 47% of Mexico, AMLO is a total joke, how half the population could be happy is a mystery, unless of course these polls are totally made up

[wilkine]

Salvador Bukele is known to have liberal views on Bitcoin and crypto. He has the ambition to help grow the country's economy and make people wealthier. Also, he has made great contributions to the massive adoption of crypto worldwide. If I were a citizen there, I'd vote for him, too.

[DdmrDdmr]

<…> I read the document and I'm not sure that those people were actually interviewed on the phone rather than they were adults that own(ed) a mobile phone: "muestra representativa de la población adulta con teléfono celular". That's the way I understand that part.

That’s because they logically needed a phone in order to be called and interviewed on the phone  …

The technical data on the survey methodology stated that (translated):

Type of Interview -> Personal, to cellular phones

(i.e. phone call interview)

[stompix]

Honestly, it seems like an exceedingly basic survey, where around 1.200 people were called on the phone between January and February of this year, and asked whether they approved their president’s management. This was performed in multiple latam countries.

Searching a bit around, with the inconvenience of having to do so in English rather than Spanish seems like Mauricio Funes managed to get 72%  in the same Gallup ordered poll, while Statista show some real weird numbers. If Honduras gets an average of 50% something is definitely wrong there.

But for Buekele probably the decrease in murder rates and violence after his truce or bribery to the gangs ruining the country is more likely to be the cause of an uptrend in approval. There is way too little that people could have gained to date from bitcoin adoption to make them that happy, long term this might be a reason but not over just 6 months.

[Fortify]

An opinion survey conducted by Gallup found that El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has received an approval rating of 85 percent. He is the most highly regarded Latin American leader among 11 Latin American countries ranging from Mexico to Peru, according to polls. In September 2021, the Central American country of El Salvador declared Bitcoin to be legal money. With the tactic of buying the drop, the nation has significantly expanded its Bitcoin holdings.

What do you think of this development?

You seem to connect this only with Bitcoin, but he may very well be doing a great job and receiving the support of his people regardless of that fact. He has also managed to buy favor with a lot of people through giving away such free sums of money (paid for by the tax payer) and as we've seen all over - sometimes the people who are most media savvy can also be terrible leaders. He also bought into Bitcoin before the drop, so it'd be interesting to see how much money was lost or what the value of the original holding is compared to the purchase price - only then can you make a sensible judgement on this. Let's hope this is a truly democratic poll instead of stage engineered.

[romeitaly]

I say that we shouldn't trust surveys at all, it's not like they've interviewed the whole population of El Salvador and not to mention that surveys create an illusion that something's perfect not to mention sometimes they're even manipulated. I wouldn't look at those polls, better to look at economic reports or the real status of the country by seeing what's really happening there.

[Erumo]

When Bitcoin was accepted as a legal payment method in El Salvador, people were doing piquets against it and crashed ATMs. They were completely against that and against Bitcoin city in El Salvador. And now 85% of them are for Bukele. With such support, Bukele is going to buy another hundred of BTC and crash its price again

[TheNineClub]

An opinion survey conducted by Gallup found that El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has received an approval rating of 85 percent. He is the most highly regarded Latin American leader among 11 Latin American countries ranging from Mexico to Peru, according to polls. In September 2021, the Central American country of El Salvador declared Bitcoin to be legal money. With the tactic of buying the drop, the nation has significantly expanded its Bitcoin holdings.

What do you think of this development?

I wouldn't link this approval to BTC as legal money. Bukele is a populist (and oriented to the right) that has maintained more or less the same rate of approval throughout his mandate. If anything, he has faced more criticism after his BTC policy than before. And has the situation of the average citizen really improved that much since that policy was implemented? That would really be crucial for it to be viewed as a sucess.

[Yaunfitda]

An opinion survey conducted by Gallup found that El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele has received an approval rating of 85 percent. He is the most highly regarded Latin American leader among 11 Latin American countries ranging from Mexico to Peru, according to polls. In September 2021, the Central American country of El Salvador declared Bitcoin to be legal money. With the tactic of buying the drop, the nation has significantly expanded its Bitcoin holdings.

That's very high approval rating for a President, it means that he has the full support of almost the population. And with this, hopefully he can developed El Salvador to be one of a tourist spot and then continue with his projects.

What do you think of this development?

This is good news specially for bitcoin, perhaps he could be emulate by other Latin American President because of his friendly stance and maybe this could be a platform for aspiring President too, to become pro-Bitcoin.