Brazil Pulse - 85% of Brazilians Consider the Michel Temer's Administration bad - July 2017
The country is still heading in the wrong direction for 95% of Brazilians, repeating last month’s result. This decline of the confidence in Brazil lifted off in January 2015 and stabilized at extremely high levels since then.
July’s Pulso Brasil data stresses the worrying scenario through which the nation is going through. The feeling of hopelessness persists - perception of the wrong direction remains for 95% of Brazilians, and 85% consider the Michel Temer's administration bad or very bad, 1% above the previous month. However, one aggravating fact calls attention: the consumer confidence index plummeted to 68 points (on a scale that goes from 0 to 200) in June to 63 points in July, overcoming the most negative level of the historical series, which was 64 points, in April 2016, the month in which former President Dilma Rousseff stepped down.
This reaction takes place in a moment of acute political instability and is accompanied by a growing lack of expectations regarding the current Government: 76% of Brazilians have no expectation about the future of Temer’s administration and only 13% think it would be better if the current President took his administration to the end.
Given this scenario, it is expected that the Ipsos’s Political Barometer would present a catastrophic result for the Commander-in-chief: 94% of the Brazilians disapprove of the way Michel Temer has been acting, even surpassing former deputy Eduardo Cunha, at 93%. The fact that the image of the current President is more negative than the evaluation of his management - combined with the lack of expectations - demonstrates that this scenario of disbelief with the country is irreversible in the short term. The current President does not hold image asset to re-establish a positive bias for the country - our social and political structure also do not help to do so, given the paucity of debates about the public agenda.
As for the evaluation of other personalities with electoral potential, in the month of July, practically all of them presented a reduction in the disapproving indicators, however not converting this difference in approval. Even though disapproving indexes continue very high for most politicians, who are seen as traditional, the fact there has been a reduction for almost all of them - except President Temer - shows that the impact of the recent corruption scandals hit much stronger the figure of the highest representative, than the political class (who still continue worn out and distant from the population wishes).
July’s Pulso Brasil brought another intriguing data: there seems to be some weakening of the ‘Lava Jato’s’ strength among the population. For 42% of Brazilians, the operation will come to nothing - this indicator was at 32% in June. On the other hand, the belief that the ‘Lava Jato’ can turn Brazil into a serious country remains, with 76%. Part of this perception comes from the fact that, according to the public opinion, corruption is not exclusive to the Worker´s Party (PT) and, therefore, investigation should be for all parties - perception that dropped from 76 % in June to 64% in July (repeating the indexes of previous periods.)
The support to the ‘Lava Jato’ operation continues almost a unanimity. An eventual demobilization of the investigation might not bring street social upheavals, but will strengthen the disbelief in institutions of the country and will benefit more conservative and nationalist political speeches for the 2018 presidential run up.
