MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian president approval plunges 15 points.

With mounting labour and peasant unrest public opinion support for Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva plunged 15 points in the first quarter of 2004 according to private pollster IBOPE.

Mr. Lula da Silva's approval rate dropped from 66% last December to 51% March 31 with the most dramatic fall between December and March 20 when it plunged 12 points from 66 to 54%.

The last week of March showed a further decline to 51%, totalling 15 points.

The poll also indicated a growing percentage of people who believe Brazil is in the "wrong track": 52% in the last week of March; 46% at the beginning of March and 36% last December.

In the last few weeks the government has been challenged by strikers in different unions, from the Federal Police (that includes Customs) to tax collectors, plus the Landless Movement who are demanding a quicker pace in land reform and have began again occupying big ranches.

The situation has worsened because of the unemployment rate that remains unyielding at 12% and the growing criticism from the opposition that claim the government has no plan and is paralyzed.

President Lula who completed 15 months in office argues that opposition parties who have ruled Brazil for the last 30 years "are now complaining as if we could achieve in 500 days what they failed in three decades".

The poll involved 2,100 people in 151 municipalities and was done the last four days of March with an error margin of plus/minus 2,2 points.