Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 77, is enjoying a sweet moment eight months after he took the reins of power in Brazil and had to face a coup attempt a week later. 60% of Brazilians approve of his work as president – the highest level of this third term – compared to 35% who fail him, according to the Genial / Quaest survey released this Wednesday. The improvement in his popularity is due to the economic situation, which his compatriots view with optimism, which has eased the reluctance towards the leftist in the south of the country and among evangelical voters. Both groups overwhelmingly supported his opponent, Jair Bolsonaro, in the elections.
The current result means that, since the previous poll, two months ago, Lula has gained four points of support for his work in the Presidency and that rejection has fallen five points. Those levels of support are a relief for the president, who has just hosted a big summit in the Amazon and presented his big investment plan.
Lula maintains an intense international agenda that next week takes him to Africa. This Wednesday he spoke by phone with his counterpart, US President Joe Biden, for 30 minutes and he recognized “the responsibilities of developed countries (in climate change) and the need to support developing countries (in face the consequences)”, according to a note from the Brazilian presidency.
The package of public and private works in all the States that intends to inject 350,000 million dollars into the economy is ambitious. Lula proclaimed when presenting it that the term for the ministers to come up with new ideas has expired, now the mission is to fulfill what was promised. Some specialists question the consistency of the growth acceleration program because it does not fully clarify the origin of the funds or the priorities.
The task of the federal government receives less support, and less rejection, than that of the president, with 42% considering it positive, 29% regular and 24% bad.
Support for the leader of the Workers’ Party (PT) in the south of the country – the whiter and richer half – has taken a spectacular jump of 11 points, to be placed on the edge of the national average. The southern states are Bolsonaro territory, but the Safra (harvest) plan to support farmers has apparently had an effect. The far-right Bolsonaro is keeping a very low profile while the press reveals new details every day about the maneuvers of his closest collaborators to sell valuable gifts that he received while he was in office.
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The economy has not given Lula any trouble since he took office. A program that he launched to encourage the negotiation of debts with banks has been welcomed by the millions of families that are trapped in the red. Unemployment is around 9%, although the informal sector reaches 40 million workers (in a country with 203 million inhabitants). In the first quarter, GDP increased by 4% compared to the same period last year.
And among evangelicals, a group that votes fairly evenly, for the first time Lula has more supporters (50%) than detractors (46%), although the difference is small and well below the national average. Leaders of the main evangelical denominations have a political alliance with Bolsonaro that Lula is trying to erode as she seeks to broaden his parliamentary support for a majority in Congress, which is now dominated by Bolsonaro’s supporters. Although Brazilian deputies are always willing to negotiate, it is about agreeing on the price.
The president’s current popularity figures are, in any case, very far from the record reached by Lula, a fact that he loves to cite. When the first worker president of Brazil left power in 2010, he enjoyed support of more than 80%. None of his predecessors or successors reached anywhere near similar levels. It was impossible to glimpse then the strength that the antipetismegged on by Bolsonaro and his followers, and that the former president would go to jail before starring in an equally unexpected political resurrection.
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