MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Lula and his administration loosing ground.

Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his administration continue to loose ground in the latest public opinion polls released this week in Brazil.

According to IBOPE, Brazilian Public Opinion and Statistics Institute, approval of President Lula's administration dropped to 29% in June compared to 34% last March, and those who consider the performance "bad" or "very bad" expanded from 23% to 26%.

However President Lula's standing remains a significant 54%, compared to 60% last March, but the percentage of those who do not trust the president increased from 36 to 43% in June, confirming that his popularity keeps deteriorating albeit at a slower rate than in previous polls.

The poll also indicated that 55% of those interviewed believe inflation will increase in the coming months while only 12% that it will diminish.

Political analysts said that in spite of President Lula's success in helping stabilize the Brazilian economy, he's being punished for not honoring electoral promises and taking distance from the left wing platform he preached for over twenty years.

But another interesting side of the poll was that if the 2002 presidential elections were to be repeated this month, Mr. Lula da Silva would again beat his opponent Social democrat Jose Serra, although by a slimmer margin, 30 to 25% in the first round of the ballotage system. However if his opponent was former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Mr. Lula would manage a bigger margin, 33% against 16%.

The IBOPE opinion poll included 2,000 voters in 140 counties of the 27 Brazilian states and was done between June 17/21.