Dilma Rousseff’s approval ratings, both personally and her government's, fell in a new poll released on Tuesday that evaluated the Brazilian president’s performance in the wake of a huge corruption scandal and a myriad of economic troubles for South America’s largest country.
According to the poll released by the MDA polling institute, 71 percent of Brazilians surveyed consider Rousseff’s government to be a “failure,” whereas only 8 percent of Brazilians consider her government to be
“great” or “good,” according to The Associated Press. These results come into stark contrast with a previous MDA poll from four months ago in which 65 percent thought Rousseff’s government was “bad” or “terrible while her approval rating hovered at 11 percent.
Rousseff’s personal approval rating decreased from 18.9 percent in March to
15.3 percent in July, according to Bloomberg. These results mark the lowest ever recorded by an MDA poll from 2001 onwards.
This new poll was published with the MDA by the National Transport Confederation (NTC), which is a company that represents private transportation businesses, according to the AP. The poll was conducted by questioning 2,002 Brazilians between July 12-16, and the poll allows for a margin of error of two percentage points.
After the recent scandal concerning the state-run Petrobras oil company occurred, calls for Rousseff’s impeachment have risen from 59.7 percent to
62.8 percent in the last four months, according to Reuters. Brazil is also currently experiencing an economic recession that continues to worsen as a corruption scandal thickens.
This marked disapproval for Rousseff and her government will make it very difficult for the president to win support for the approval of her legislation geared towards boosting investor confidence, according to Bloomberg.
“Unfortunately, we’re looking at a long period where the economy will be very bad and there will be limited scope to make progress on strategic issues,” said Flavio Serrano, a senior economist at the investment bank BESI Brasil, according to Bloomberg.
Rousseff continues to struggle with slowing above-target inflation and stimulating the shrinking Brazilian economy as she tries to propel her legislation that include unpopular bills to raise taxes and cut expenditures through the government, according to Bloomberg.