Seven months before the first round of elections, the government’s negative assessment () reached 40%, according to new research released this Saturday (7). 32% rated the management as excellent or good, while another 26% saw it as regular and 1% had no opinion.
In the previous survey, from December last year, the negative evaluation (“bad/terrible” responses) reached 37%. In other words, it has fluctuated upwards since then, but within the margin of error — which is plus or minus 2 percentage points. The positive rate registered the same 32% as now, while the rate of those who classify the government as regular was 30%.
Datafolha interviewed 2,004 Brazilians aged 16 or over from the 3rd to the 5th of this month. The maximum margin of error is two percentage points, and the confidence level is 95%. The research is registered with the (Superior Electoral Court) under code BR-03715/2026.
The negative assessment at the level of 40% comes even after the government’s mobilization in the economic field, with the approval of initiatives such as that for those earning up to R$5,000. One of the banners of the 2022 campaign, the new IR table came into force this year.
Planalto has tried to emphasize positive economic data with a view to the elections. Despite this, as shown by Sheeta sequence of allies of the president, who were betting on a better performance in terms of popularity.
The measurement, on the other hand, suggests that the evaluation of the Lula government was not greatly affected by episodes such as that of Acadêmicos de Niterói. It also does not seem to indicate, for now, a great impact of the development of the investigations related to the case of .
The approval of Lula’s work as president goes in the same direction: 49% disapprove, while 47% think the opposite. Another 4% were unable to answer. In December, disapproval was 48% and approval was 49%. That month, 3% said they didn’t know.
As the fluctuations occurred within the margin of error, the result indicates a maintenance of the picture captured at the end of last year, without a significant change from a statistical point of view in the interviewees’ perception of the agent’s performance.
Some data highlight the relationship with voting in the second round of the 2022 presidential elections. Among those who voted for the PT member, 86% approve of his work, compared to 11% who disapprove. In the group of those who voted for , 90% disapprove of the management and 9% approve.
Disapproval is higher among men than among women: 54% versus 45%. Among those with average education, 54% disapprove and 42% approve. In the elementary school range, 38% disapprove and 57% approve. Among those with higher education, there are 52% against 44%.
The greatest distance between approval and disapproval rates, regarding the main segments of the population, appears among evangelicals. In this group, the balance is negative by 36 points: 66% disapprove of the president, while 30% approve.
Presidential evaluation figures after three years and two months of government show Lula among those with the highest negative evaluation at this point in his term.
With 40% bad or terrible, the current president is only behind José Sarney and Jair Bolsonaro, who recorded negative evaluation rates of 65% and 46%, respectively.
At the end of Lula’s first term, in 2006, the PT member had a 23% rating that was bad or very bad. Three years and two months into his second term, in 2010, Lula reached 4%.
Other presidents also had a more favorable negative evaluation at this time in office: Fernando Henrique Cardoso had 21% in 1998 and 28% in 2002.
Dilma Rousseff, on the other hand, had a rating of 21% that was bad or very bad in 2014, at the end of her first term.
The scenario does not change in terms of positive evaluation. Lula now has 32%. The worst ratings were, again, from Sarney and Bolsonaro. The first scored 10% in 1988, and the second, 25% in 2022.
In 2006 and 2010, after three years and two months in government, the PT member registered excellent and good rates of 38% and 76% — the highest level in the historical series.
Among the others, FHC had 38% in 1998 and 29% in 2002. Dilma, on the other hand, had a 41% positive rating at the beginning of 2014.
