Disapproval of Bolsonaro’s Government Grows to 42 Percent

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The disapproval of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government reached 42 percent in April, after reaching 36 percent in March, according to an extra edition of the “XP Population Survey”, conducted by the institution in partnership with the IPESPE Institute.

It is the highest rate of poor or bad rating since the start of his term in office, yet still stable within the survey’s error margin of 3.2 percentage points.

The proportion of the population assessing the government as “excellent or good” fell from 30 to 28 percent in the period, also stable within the margin. However, this is the first time that the rate has dropped below the 30 percent level.

The survey included a special questionnaire about the coronavirus pandemic in the country. Bolsonaro’s performance in fighting the virus was considered “bad or terrible” by 44 percent of the population, while 29 percent considered the president’s performance as “great or good” and 21 percent as fair.

The President was the most poorly evaluated among all surveyed categories. Bolsonaro’s performance is tied at the error margin with that of Congress (30 percent), and the Supreme Court (29 percent), but well below that of the Minister of Health, Henrique Mandetta (68 percent), the governors (59 percent), the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes (37 percent) and health professionals (87 percent).

The survey also noted a deterioration in expectations for the remainder of Bolsonaro’s term.

The proportion of the population expecting his government to be “bad or terrible” rose from 33 to 37 percent, while the “great or good” rating dropped from 38 to 34 percent.

“We can see that Bolsonaro keeps his core support at around 30 percent and that’s what he needs to get to 2022. We don’t expect a change in his behavior,” said Richard Back, head of Macro Sales and Political Analysis at XP, in a webinar promoting the research.

In parallel, the governors’ assessment has skyrocketed and the proportion that considers the governments of heads of state as positive has jumped from 26 to 44 percent, while the negative assessment has dropped from 27 to 15 percent.

The survey heard 1,000 people over the phone between March 30th and April 1st. The sample takes into account gender, region, age, type of city, religion, size of the municipality, occupation, educational level, and income.