Disapproval of Brazilian Congress Hits Record High

12/06/2017 - 09h49

Brazilian Congress has reached the highest disapproval rating in recent history.

Datafolha's poll conducted on November 29 and November 30 shows that 60% of Brazilians feel that the current 513 congressmen and 81 senators are doing a poor or very poor job.

Congress' approval rating dropped to 5%, the lowest on record.

The poll was conducted shortly after the lower house of congress barred the second criminal charge against Michel Temer, Brazil's highly unpopular president.

Figures oscillated between two percentage points regarding the already record disapproval of Congress revealed in the last two polls conducted by the institute, in December 2016 and April 2017 –58% of disapproval and 7% of approval –, at the limit of the margin of error.

Datafolha began tracking congressional performance in 1993, and it is safe to say that the current legislature has, on average, the lowest approval rating on record.

The disapproval rating from 2015 up to 2017 has never been lower than 41%, and approval has never been higher than 12%. The six previous legislatures also had overall negative results, but never with such poor indicators.

The only time, in the last 25 years, Datafolha recorded an approval rating of Congress higher than its rejection rating was in 2003, the first year of Lula da Silva's first administration (2003-2010).

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

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	Evaristo Sá/AFP
	View of a projection reading "Temer Out", referring to Brazilian President Michel Temer, on the Lower House's building during a demo in Brasilia