One hundred days of disappointment | Conflicts of power and errors …

The first 100 days of ultra-right Jair Bolsonaro at the head of the Brazilian executive were marked by power struggles and mistakes that eroded his popularity and cast doubt on his reforms. He has, however, kept some of the promises of the campaign (which will be finalized on Wednesday), such as the authorization to possess weapons or the launch of privatizations.

"It would not be an understatement to say that the performance of the president so far has been disappointing," said Thomaz Favaro of Control Risks, a political risk control consultancy. "There was a false perception that Bolsonaro had come with a very strong support base and I think we are now starting to see that maybe he's not that strong," he adds.

Bolsonaro took over the presidency with simple messages that would put an end to rampant crime, violence and corruption. But the current president discovers that his inflexible style, his use and his misuse of the social network Twitter do not work in Congress, where he does not have the majority. His pension reform project, for example, is stalled after a dispute with key political allies. Perhaps for this reason, in recent days, the President has given the impression to adopt a more conciliatory tone, by organizing meetings with leaders of different parties.

Bolsonaro, who has become a member of parliament for decades better known for his racist, misogynistic and homophobic slurs and insults, and his defense of the military dictatorship who, for his legislative work, has kept some promises since his appointment as president on 1 January.

These include the flexibilization of gun ownership laws and the concessioning of 12 airports, as part of successful bid solicitations, which have been seen as evidence of the foreign investor confidence.

But it will be more difficult to conduct more controversial policies in the Congress' heterogeneous lower house, where its social-liberal party controls only 54 of the 513 seats. This means that he will be forced to enter into ad hoc alliances with the legislators of several parties belonging to caucuses "3 B": Bible, Bullet and Ox, ie the evangelicals, the lobby of weapons and advocates of agribusiness. .

The executive is also plagued by factional fighting such as the army, ultra-conservative ideologues and the president's sons. All compete for greater political influence.

"The president is constantly on the line," said Favaro, for whom Bolsonaro's strategy depends on his political ability to create a viable coalition in Congress. "And it's complicated, because we now see that the president's popularity rating has declined," said the Control Risks representative. The level of popularity of the former soldier, which was 67% in January, fell to 51 in March, the worst recorded by a president since his first term in his first three months of management.

A series of serious mistakes have further undermined Bolsonaro's credibility. The President's recent initiative to commemorate the 1964 military coup provoked outrage and protests, his badertion that the Nazis were left was ridiculed and a series of scandals, including allegations of transactions. Illegal financials involving one of his sons, have damaged his image of paladin anti-corruption.