Mexicans on Social Media Celebrate Obama's "Putdown" of Enrique Peña Nieto

President Obama's populism 'rant' during the North American Leader's Summit became fodder for social media debates.

By Redacción2016-06-30T20:20:00+00:00

OTTAWA.-During the North American Leader's Summit closing ceremony, the Mexican and U.S. presidents both expressed very differing opinions about "populism", but people in social media (especially from Mexico) are applauding the way president Obama "rebutted" Peña Nieto for having a negative opinion on populism.

According to Peña, politicians who embrace populist ideologies are merely "selling easy solutions" to problems that are much more complex":

"In this world, where a wide range of political leaders and actors are assuming populist, demagogical stances, they pretend to erase or destroy the things that have already been built, things that took decades of effort, in order to bring back issues from the past."

It was then that president Obama stated in a long 'rant' about the type of actions and stances that, according to him, actually stem from real populism, such as fighting for equal opportunities for everyone and actually supporting and representing the plights of the working and poor classes; conversely, he said the following about what is not populism:

"Someone who's never shown any regard for workers, never fought for social justice issues or making sure that poor kids are getting a decent shot in life, or have health care in fact, have worked against economic opportunity for workers and ordinary people they don't suddenly become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes. That's not the measure of populism, that's nativism, or xenophobia, or worse. Or, it's just cynicism."

Despite the fact that, in the context of American politics, these jabs were most likely directed at Republican candidate Donald Trump, who's been increasingly accused of becoming a "populist" by his detractors, the response of Mexican social media portrays it squarely as a "putdown" directed at Peña Nieto himself, and is being celebrated as such by a good portion of the vocal Mexican populace.

Peña, on the other hand, was more direct in his comments about Trump. Earlier that day, he was asked if he still believed that Trump was comparable to historical dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, like he said in the past; Peña answered that these were men who addressed their own societies in a similar fashion and the end result was devastation and a tragedy for mankind."