Brazil: Luiz Inácio Government disapproval surpasses approval for the first time
We hereby share an unofficial translation by A Nova Democracia:
The Genil/Quaest survey from today, January 27, shows that more people disapprove than approve the Luiz Inácio (PT) government. The percentages are 37% that negatively evaluate the government and 31% that they evaluate positively.
It is a 5% increase in disapproval from the December survey. Approval fell by 2%.
Regarding Luiz Inácio personally, the disapproval of the ruler’s work grew from 47% to 49%. Approval fell from 52% to 47%.
The government is more disapproved among people with income greater than 5 minimum wages (59%), but disapproval is also high among those that earn between 2 and 5 salaries (54%) and below this range (39%). There was a 7% drop in approval among those who earn below minimum wage (from 63% in December to 56% in January).
The Northeast (where Luiz Inácio always had more electoral support) was one of the regions that led the fall regarding the approval, followed by the south. The index fell from 67% to 60% in this part of the country.
Approval also fell among women. Only 49% of women interviewed say approving the government, versus 54% in December.
The sectors aligned with the government continue to blame the bad communication of the ruler team for the fall in popularity. Although it is true that Luiz Inacio has bad spokesmen, the reasons behind popular dissatisfaction are more concrete, such as the increase in the price of food, not to revoke labor and social security counter-reforms, the burial of agrarian reform (to the point that MST’s yellow direction admitted the failure of the government at this point), the eschatological relationship with the Bolsonarist center through giving them everything in return of be kept in the government, the appeasement with the military coup and the passivity in relation to the far right.
Faced with all these factors, speeches such as by the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, who ordered the people to buy other fruits if the orange is expensive, are mere complement.
The far right is trying to profit from the fall of the approval of Luiz Inacio. The task is facilitated by the government itself by presenting itself as left but maintaining the same reactionary regime as always and not meeting the interests of the people, giving political capital to the far right.
Several articulations were made between the far right, the Bolsonarists and the traditional right in the last year, and trends point to several possible candidates, from the governor of São Paulo Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) to the Goiana namesake Ronaldo Caiado (União Brasil) or even some member of the Bolsonaro mafia. Far right boss Jair commented on the possible options in a CNN interview last week.
Meanwhile, true, progressive, and revolutionary democrats continue to develop the people’s and revolutionary struggle in the country as the only way to defeat the far right. Its core continues to present itself in the Brazilian countryside, where poor peasants, spontaneously or organized by movements such as the League of Poor Peasants (LCP), confront the armed bands of far-right big landlords.
