Jair Bolsonaro’s government disapproval grows: from 39% to 50% in four months

The failure rate of the government of the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, rose from 39% in February to 50% in June, as well as the worsening COVID-19 pandemic in the country, according to a survey released on Thursday.

According to the Ipec Institute survey, while the government’s rejection rate rose eleven percentage points in four months, the approval rate fell by five, from 28% in February to 23% in June .

The percentage of Brazilians who view Bolsonaro’s management as regular has increased from 31% to 26% in the same period.

The sharp deterioration in the president’s image coincided with the arrival of a second wave of the pandemic in Brazil, much more virulent and deadly than the first, which has resulted in the country currently racking up some 508,000 deaths from COVID-19 and nearly 18.2 million infections.

Such figures make the Latin American giant, with 212 million inhabitants, the second country in number of victims due to the pandemic in the world, behind the United States, and in the third with more cases, after the United States and India.

The head of state’s jump in unpopularity has also coincided with the progress of the work of the Senate committee which is investigating possible shortcomings and omissions in the government’s management of the pandemic.

Bolsonaro, one of the world’s most denial of the severity of the pandemic, reject preventive measures such as the use of masks or social distancing and alleges that economic activities cannot be paralyzed because unemployment, in his opinion, kills more people than COVID-19.

The governor came to question the effectiveness and safety of vaccines and for months he defended the treatment of COVID-19 with drugs whose effectiveness has never been scientifically proven.

IPEC interviewed 2,002 people in 141 municipalities between June 17 and 21 and its survey has a margin of error of two percentage points and a confidence level of 95%.

The institute also asked respondents if they approve of Bolsonaro’s way of governing Brazil, to which 66% said they disapproved -over 58% measured in February- and 33% who approve, compared to 38% four months ago.

The percentage of Brazilians who say they are suspicious of the sovereign rose from 61% in February to 68% in June, and the percentage of those who claim to trust it fell from 36% to 30% during the same period..

(With information from EFE)

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