The approval rating of Brazil's president, DilmaRousseff, plunged in June to 30 per cent from 57 per cent, reflecting swelling anger against the government since protests spread to more than 100 cities in recent weeks in a broad repudiation of political corruption, deplorable public services and costly stadium projects for the 2014 World Cup.
The New York Times reports that a poll released on Saturday by Datafolha, a leading Brazilian research company, ratchets up pressure on Ms.Rousseff, 65, to respond more energetically to the concerns of protesters, and raises doubts over what might happen in next year's presidential election. Until the unrest, she enjoyed resiliently high approval ratings, which made her a favorite to win re-election.
More than 80 per cent of respondents in the Datafolha poll, which had a sampling margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, expressed support for the protests.
The poll also showed that support for Ms.Rousseff — an economist who has been trying to stir Brazil's sluggish economy with huge stimulus projects — eroded even in bastions of support for the governing Workers Party, like northeast Brazil. Her approval rating there fell to 40 per cent from 64 per cent at the start of June, when the protests began escalating.
Political rivals have been increasing their criticism of her response to the protests, which has included proposals to hire thousands of foreign doctors to strengthen the public health system, channel oil royalties to education projects and hold a nationwide vote on reforming the political system. Ms.Rousseff herself has voiced some support for the protests, while also warning against the violence that has marred demonstrations.
"She spoke more than listened," Marina Silva, a former environment minister who placed third in the 2010 presidential election, said in an interview with the newspaper Estado de São Paulo. "It was obvious that doing a marketing-focused discourse wasn't going to work."
The Datafolha poll, conducted on June 27 and 28 in a survey of 4,717 people, put Ms.Rousseff's government on the defensive.
"She recognizes there's a change and thinks that the remedy is to work a lot," Paulo Bernardo Silva, the communications minister, said after meeting with the president on Saturday. He said that the authorities planned to continue discussions with representatives of the protests, which have criticized a broad range of political leaders, in an effort to identify priorities.
The Punch