SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Approval of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government has slightly fallen, roughly reaching the same level of its disapproval rate, according to a poll released on Thursday.
The leftist president, who is in the second year of his third non-consecutive term, had an approval rate of 35% in a survey conducted by Datafolha March 19 to 20, down from 38% in December.
The percentage of respondents expressing disapproval slightly increased to 33% from 30%. Another 30% were neutral in the March poll, unchanged from December.
Since Datafolha’s poll has an error margin of two percentage points, the government approval and disapproval rates were roughly tied.
Datafolha interviewed 2,002 people in 147 Brazilian cities.
About an year ago, approval of Lula’s government stood at 38% and its disapproval at 29%.
On Monday, in the first ministerial meeting of the year, Lula demanded results from the ministers, following other opinion polls showing a decline in popularity.
(Reporting by Andre Romani; additional reporting by Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia)
