One month after Pope Francis’s election which took
this country of 42 million people by surprise and sparked off a tidal
wave of emotion, religious fervor and pride, a national survey has shown
that he enjoys an extraordinary and unprecedented positive rating.
The survey, conducted by Poliarquia Consultores, a pollster company based in Buenos Aires, shows that 89% of the population has a positive image of him, while a mere 2% , a figure below the level of statistical error have a negative image.
69% have a “very good image” of Pope Francis, and 20% have a “good image”, while another 5% have “a regular image”, the survey showed. A mere 2% have a ‘bad’, or ‘very bad’ image of him.
The survey was conducted by Poliarquia for La Nacion, one of the main Argentinean newspapers, which the future Pope used to read regularly when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires.
The poll was conducted by telephone on “more than” 1000 people over the age of 18 in all the urban centers of the country that have a population of more than 10,000 people.
It was carried out in the period 3-10 April, almost one month after Cardinal Bergoglio’s election as Pope.
Some 51% of those surveyed believe that Pope Francis will bring “great changes” in the Catholic Church, 34% think he will introduce “moderate changes”, while 11% say there will be “few changes.”
Many believe his election too will have a big impact on Argentina as a country. 38% predict it will bring “big changes”, 35% expect it to bring “moderate changes”, while 23% think it will bring ‘few changes”
The majority of Argentineans are paying attention to the news about the new Pope. 56% say they are following this “with much interest”, 25% with “reasonable interest”, 13% with ‘little interest”, while a mere 5% say they are not interested.
Respondents also say that they think relationship between the new Pope and the President of the country, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will be better than in the past. 51% predict that the relationship will be “positive”, 34% expect it to be “regular”, while only 8% say it will be “negative.”
“There is no doubt that Pope Francis is the leader with the highest positive image in the country”, Fabian Perechodnik, Director of Poliarquia, told La Nacion, which published the results on Sunday, April 14.
He says the survey shows that more that eight out of every ten persons in the country are interested in what is happening to the first ever Argentinean Pope, the first pope from Latin America.