New government

Bolsonaro three-month approval rating hits record low in Brazil: survey

Three in ten Brazilians believe the new government is “bad or terrible,” pollster Datafolha showed

São Paulo |
Bolsonaro administration is marked by controversies and slow economic performance
Bolsonaro administration is marked by controversies and slow economic performance - Evaristo Sá / AFP

Three months into the new government, a few days before its hundred-day mark, the Jair Bolsonaro administration has a record-low approval rate of presidents in their first term since Brazil’s democratic transition, in 1985, a new survey showed Sunday.

The poll conducted by Datafolha showed that 30 percent of Brazilians think the far-right president’s government is “bad or terrible,” while 32 percent believe it is “good or great” and 33 percent say it is “average.” Four percent of respondents were not sure.

Brazilians’ expectation that Bolsonaro will show good management also dropped. Before his inauguration, 65 percent believed he would show “good or great,” and now it’s at 59 percent, while the number of respondents who expect a “bad or terrible” government is up from 12 to 23 percent in the same period. Those who believe it will be an “average” term was stable, from 17 to 16 percent.

The pollster interviewed 2,086 people at age 16 or older in 130 Brazilian cities on Apr. 2 and 3. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.

Edited by: Aline Carrijo