President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (Workers’ Party) approval rating and the assessment people make of his government improved between November and January, according to a survey published on Tuesday (6) by the AtlasIntel Institute, which interviewed more than 7,400 people between January 28 and 31.
According to the institute, 52% of the population approve of the president, against 43% who disapprove of him. In the November survey, these rates were 50% and 47%, respectively. In other words, the difference between approval and disapproval rose from three to nine percentage points. The margin of error is plus or minus one percentage point.
Similarly, the difference between positive and negative evaluations of the government in general has also improved. In January, 42% rated the government as "excellent" or "good", while 39% rated it as "bad" or "terrible".
The trend has now reversed, since in the January survey disapproval of the government was numerically higher than approval ratings (45% to 43%).
The survey also looked at the population's perception of a list of names on the Brazilian political scene. Lula had the highest approval rating (51%), although 45% of the interviewees said they had a negative idea about the president. Simone Tebet, Brazil's Minister of Planning and Budget (47% positive and 43% negative), and São Paulo’s governor Tarcísio de Freitas (43% positive and 34% negative) were the only two with a favorable rating.
On the other hand, characters such as Former President Jair Bolsonaro (43% positive; 51% negative); former judge, former minister and senator Sergio Moro (22% positive and 65% negative) and the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (15% positive and 62% negative) were negatively seen by the population.
Party preference
When asked which political party they preferred, interviewees had mixed responses. The only parties with a significant number of declared supporters were Lula's PT (Workers’ Party, in English), with 29%, and Bolsonaro's PL (Liberal Party, in English), with 18%. However, both were still below the 39% answer of "none".
