Brazil: Record-Breaking Figures Show Preference For Democracy

The support of Brazilians for democracy reached an unprecedented 75 percent amid the political crisis unleashed by Jair Bolsonaro´s government, as revealed by a survey from the research institute Datafolha on Monday.

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The preference for democracy as the best form of government increased by 13 percent compared to the last survey in December 2019, becoming the highest index since  1989, when the institute began to collect such data.

On May 3, 2020, during a rally attended by Bolsonaro, demonstrators called for the closing of the Supreme Court and Congress. As they asked for the suppression of democratic branches of the government, they also appealed for authoritarian measures used during Brazil’s 1964 to 1985 military regime.

In this context, the survey, conducted in June, after these events, showed that adult Brazilians are divided over the chances of the country becoming a dictatorship again since, for 46 percent, there is some chance. Among those, 21% think there is a lot of chance and 25 percent a little chance. On the opposite side, 49 percent of the surveyed believe there is no chance at all.

Notably, three out of four Brazilians disagree that the government should have the right to close Congress, a total of 78 percent of the population polled. In contrast, 24 percent of Bolsonaro supporters agree to some extent.

The survey inquired from Brazilians aged 16 and over and conducted 2,016 telephone interviews from all over the country. As the margin of error has narrowed to 2 percentage points, Datafolha calculates the poll has 95 percent accuracy.

The institute highlights that in general, the rate of Brazilians who reject authoritarian measures has increased in comparison with the previous poll from December last year.

At the same time, 81 percent, a proportion of eight out of ten adults, disagree that the government should have the right to prohibit strikes, which also marks a record in the historical series of polls by Datafolha.

Another poll from June 26, 2020, revealed that for 54 percent of Brazilians, the president is seen as unintelligent, 64 percent consider him authoritarian, and 58 percent believe that Bolsonaro is a defender of the richest.