Vacunagate: 70% of Brazilians think there is corruption in the Bolsonaro government | The impact of reports of suspected irregularities in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines

70% of Brazilians believe there is corruption in President Jair Bolsonaro’s government, the far-right leader elected in 2018 on the promise to fight against the embezzlement of public funds, according to a Datafolha survey. Bolsonaro on Saturday denied any act of corruption in his government after the disclosure of another poll showing that, For the first time, more than half of the population supports the opening of an impeachment trial by Congress for the purpose of impeachment. The president continues to avoid complaints received by the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (ICC) about alleged irregularities by his government in purchasing covid-19 vaccines.

According to the survey by Datafolha, which interviewed 2,074 people over the age of 16 in different parts of the country on July 7 and 8, 70% of Brazilians consider that there is corruption in the Bolsonaro government, 23 % say they don’t and the remaining seven percent say they don’t know. In addition the 63% of Brazilians believe there is corruption in the Ministry of Health and 64% say the Head of State is aware of the deviations that have occurred in this portfolio.

The Vacunagate

The investigation was carried out after the installation of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (ICC) in the Senate to verify the omissions and presumed failures in the government’s management in the face of the pandemic discovered suspected irregularities in the procurement of coronavirus vaccines. In recent weeks, complaints from senior officials demanding bribes to approve vaccine purchase contracts have surfaced.

One of the witnesses interviewed by the parliamentary committee, MP Luis Miranda, revealed that he discovered one of these cases of corruption and reported it to Bolsonaro, who pledged to take steps to prevent the corruption. irregularity, which ultimately did not take place. For this omission The Supreme Court authorized the prosecution to open an investigation for embezzlement with the president.

Majority in favor of impeachment

Saturday, after another poll showed that the majority of Brazilians (54%) argue that Congress opens a political trial for the crimes of responsibility of which it is accused, the president denied the corruption allegations. “It’s been two and a half years without corruption. They want to charge me now for a crime of corruption even though not a dose of these vaccines was purchased“he claimed.

According to the president, the suspicious contracts were suspended by the control bodies because “we have a filter, we have controls”, which prevented the purchase of vaccines in the companies surveyed.

Regarding the complaint that he did not ask the police to investigate the alleged negotiations after being alerted by MP Miranda, Bolsonaro claimed he cannot take preventive measures based on all the information it receives. “It’s a fantastic story that only serves three senators to promote themselves politically”, he assured.

Before being peppered with allegations of corruption, Bolsonaro’s image had already deteriorated due to his management questioned in the face of the coronavirus, since in the midst of the president’s denial, unlike containments, masks and other preventive measures, Brazil has become one of the countries most affected by the pandemic in the world. Today it’s the second country with the most deaths from coronavirus in the world, with 533 thousand victims, and the third with the most infections after the United States and India, with more than 19 million cases.