BRAZIL-ROUSSEFF/POLL More Brazilians want president Rousseff impeached, poll shows

Record ID: 146185

  • Title: BRAZIL-ROUSSEFF/POLL More Brazilians want president Rousseff impeached, poll shows
  • Date: 21st July 2015
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (FILE - 2015) (REUTERS) PETROBRAS LOGO ON THE EXTERIOR OF THE PETROBRAS HEADQUARTERS IN RIO DE JANEIRO
  • Embargoed: 5th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA49EYZGL6DLNOXC5D26TLBNQXX
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's popularity slumped to a new low and support for her impeachment grew amid a deepening corruption scandal and a severe economic downturn, according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday (July 21).
    The numbers are another blow for Rousseff, who is facing criticism from within her own leftist Workers' Party over fiscal austerity measures she has adopted to try to save Brazil's prized investment grade.
    The CNT/MDA poll showed that her government's approval rating has fallen to 7.7 percent compared with 10.8 percent in a previous survey in March, while 70.9 percent rate her government negatively compared to 64.8 percent in March.
    The number of respondents who favour Rousseff's impeachment over a massive kickback scandal at state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA has risen to 62.8 percent from 59.7 percent four months ago.
    Opinion polls have continually pummelled Rousseff since she began her second term on January 1, 2015.
    Inflation in Latin America's largest economy has spiked after the president authorised hikes in utility rates and other government-set prices following her narrow re-election in October of 2014.
    High inflation is eating away at disposable income, contributing to what is expected to be Brazil's steepest recession since 1990.
    It has also enraged consumers, sending Rousseff's popularity to a record low and encouraging some opposition leaders to call for the president to step down.
    Political scientist Paulo Baia told Reuters all these factors and an overall negative outlook have likely played into Rousseff's dismal poll numbers.
    "(The poll shows) the combination of issues people are unsatisfied with in their day-to-day lives; with inflation, with employment, the people's purchasing power has gone down; the people don't have hope that better days are coming. Quite the opposite, the people are pessimistic and think things will get worse and not better. And this is accentuated in the day-to-day productive outlook. Industrial (output) is falling, the service (industry) is falling, business is falling and it is feeding discouragement. This poll shows a generalised discouragement," Baia said.
    Brazilians favouring impeachment want Rousseff ousted for corruption at Petrobras, which she chaired before becoming president in 2011.
    More than 50 politicians, mostly from Rousseff's governing coalition, are under investigation for kickbacks received from Brazil's top engineering and construction firms skimmed from overpriced contracts with Petrobras.
    Rousseff is not being investigated but her opponents have stepped up demands for her impeachment, which would require proof that kickback money funded her election campaign.
    Rousseff and the Workers' Party say all campaign donations were legal.
    Many who favour her impeachment also cite alleged campaign finance irregularities and government accounting mismanagement during her first term, the poll said.
    The survey showed that a vast majority of Brazilians - 84.6 percent - believe Rousseff is unable to handle the country's worst economic downturn in 25 years, with gross domestic product is expected to shrink 1.7 percent this year.
    If she were to be impeached, it would be the first ouster of a sitting president in the country in nearly 23 years.
    However, Baia said impeachment proceedings are unlikely saying they lack a legal framework because there is no evidence her campaign received money tied to the corruption scandal.
    "So, impeachment is a political movement coming from the opposition, it is a sentiment that various sectors of the population have, but it doesn't have legal footing, judicial footing or factual footing. That's why I think it very unlikely that Brazilian parliament will ask for impeachment. Because it would add to the political crisis, not be a solution to the political crisis," Baia said.
    But that has not stopped large swathes of Brazilians from calling for Rousseff's impeachment or for her to voluntarily step down.
    Calls for her removal from power gained steam back in March when the country saw nationwide protests against her government with massive rallies in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other major cities.
    Fabio Virgulino, an engineer from Rio de Janeiro, told Reuters he supports calls to impeach the president an economic grounds.
    "With this government, things aren't going well. The country is stopping. We are facing a very big recession. Unemployment is at the highest it's been in 20 years, as I read in the newspaper yesterday. And it isn't good for anyone. My line of work is frozen, and there are a lot of people losing their jobs and being sent away and this isn't good for me or for anyone else," Virgulino said.
    But Alvaro Freitas, a retiree from Rio, said he disagreed and that he believes Rousseff should be able to finish out her four-year term.
    "I'm against (impeachment) because I think it is undemocratic. No matter how bad the government might be, and I'm not from the PT (Workers' Party), but we have to see it (the government) through to the end (of the term)," Freitas said.
    The MDA poll, commissioned by the national transport lobby group CNT, surveyed 2,002 people between July 12 and 16.
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