MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilians not happy with President Lula’s third mandate

Lula da Silva, once an undisputable political figure, has seen his image tarnished once again by corruption reports

Tough times ahead for Brazilian president Lula da Silva. On Wednesday a public opinion poll was released indicating that 57% of Brazilians disapprove of his government, and for 56% of the 57%, Lula’s performance is much worse than his previous two terms, while 61% believe the country in on the wrong track.

The poll was released by Pesquisa/Quaest, which is considered reliable in the country both by government and the opposition.

The release follows a media conference from Lula at the Executive seat, Palacio de Planalto on Tuesday when he pointed out to positive results of his government and only briefly mentioned a major corruption situation in the Social Welfare Institute, or the fact that US risk Agency Moody’s downgraded the country’s long term investment grade from “positive” to “stable”

The Quaest opinion poll coincides with Genial Investments in that the 57% disapproval is the worse since January 2023, while the 40% approval is at its lowest level, while a majority believes it is worse than the previous government.

For 61`% of the interviews the Lula third administration is on the wrong track compared to 32% which trust it is going right. Furthermore 44% believe the Lula administration is worse than that of its predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, and the big concern is that it has an increase tendency.

Regionally, the South and Southeast of the country have the highest disapproval percentages, 62% and 64%, while the North-East is the only region which expresses support for the government, 54%.

But pollsters point out the release, strangely enough, points out to a paradox, since the negative perception of the Brazilian economy manages a high approval when it comes to lowering income tax rates and subsidizing cooking gas.

The poll indicates women disapproval is at highest rate since January 2023, when Lula took office, since it jumped from 53% in March to 54% in May, while approval is stationed at 42%.

Among men disapproval and approval stand at 59% and 39%, but concerning is the fact that the beneficiaries of the so called Food Bag, (a form of Food Banks) had approval drop from 54% in March to 51% in May, the lowest for the third Lula mandate.

Among evangelist voters, (a significant percentage of the electorate), disapproval remains high, 66%, but among Catholics the May percentage was 53%, compared to 45% approval.

According to political scientist Felipe Nunes, Quest’s CEO, one of the problems is the ongoing impact of negative news, and half of the interviews reflected that feeling, “current government is generating more negative than positive news,” among which the main is the scandal in the Social Security offices, besides overall corruption, inflation and wasteful government spending.

“The repercussions of the Social Security Institute scandal have overshadowed any good news on the economy, such as public works or support programs. People are more difficult to be convinced, and government so far has been unable of keeping its election promises. The government is losing precious time,” concludes CEO Nunes.

The opinion poll was done between May 29 and June first, included 2,004 people, aged above 16, with face to face interviews, or structured questionnaires. Margin of error two percentage points and a confidence index of 95%

The Social Security or INSS scandal, refers to the “leak” emptying of thousands of pension deposit accounts, which only came to light when depositors complained sums were missing from their savings. Apparently an inside organization of INSS were involved and had been doing it for several years.