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Bloomberg
Far-right ex-army captain Jair Bolsonaro garnered more support in the wake of a crippling truckers’ strike that brought parts of Brazil to a standstill, a Datafolha opinion survey showed.
The poll released by Folha de S.Paulo newspaper has Bolsonaro with 19 percent of vote intentions, up from 17 percent in an April poll. Former Environment Minister Marina Silva was little changed at between 14 percent and 15 percent in the three scenarios excluding ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was jailed on corruption charges. Leftwing candidate Ciro Gomes rose to between 10 percent and 11 percent from 9 percent.
In the one scenario in which Lula was included he had 30 percent of vote intentions.
Brazilian assets took a beating over the past week, partly fuelled by the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of this October’s elections.
A deteriorating economic scenario, highlighted by recent downward revisions of this year’s growth rates, further undermined support for the already unpopular administration of President Michel Temer, as well as his pro-market agenda. The share of Brazilians who find his administration bad or very bad rose to 82 percent, the most of any president since the nations’s return to democracy in 1985, Datafolha showed.
Angry Brazilians, wearied by years of recession and corruption, currently show little inclination to vote a pro-market reformist into office.
Former Sao Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin, the only candidate to favour Temer’s cost-cutting pension reform, remained little changed at 7 percent, according to Datafolha.