61 Percent of Brazilians Believe Bolsonaro Intended to Interfere in Federal Police

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – For the majority of Brazilians (61 percent) who watched the controversial April 22nd cabinet meeting video, President Jair Bolsonaro has used his position to interfere politically with the Federal Police command.

On the other hand, among those who watched the cabinet meeting video, 32 percent of responders believe Bolsonaro’s account that he referred to the change in his family’s personal security by saying he would “interfere, yes” and that he could fire the Minister in charge of the department.

The charge of presidential interference was voiced by ex-Minister of Justice Sérgio Moro as the reason for his resignation from the government and is the subject of an inquiry by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) – the video release, with some excerpts redacted, was ordered by Justice Celso de Mello on Friday, May 22nd.

The data were obtained by Datafolha in a survey on Monday and Tuesday of this week, conducted by telephone with 2,069 adults throughout the country. The error margin is two percentage points plus or minus.

According to Datafolha, 55 percent of Brazilians had access to the video or its content. The different opinions by regions follow the customary geographical pattern when Bolsonaro is the subject: the South, North and Midwest regions tend to defend him, while distrust is greater in the Northeast.

Youths aged 16 to 24 (70 percent), people with more schooling (66 percent) and the wealthiest (over ten minimum wages, 65 percent) believe more strongly in Bolsonaro’s version.

A little over a month after Moro left the government, where he had come with carte blanche and the prestige of his years as the iconic judge of Operation Lava Jato, the ex-Minister still enjoys a better reputation in the clash with his ex-boss.

According to 54 percent of respondents, Moro is telling the truth about the exchange of accusations with Bolsonaro, the same rating as on April 27th (52 percent), three days after the ex-Minister left office.

The President has now seen his credibility progress among those who previously said they had no opinion. Twenty-seven percent believe he is telling the truth, compared to 20 percent in the previous round.

The number of those who were unable to answer dropped from 19 to ten percent. Those who do not believe in both or either of them remain unchanged, three percent (from two percent), and seven percent (from six percent), respectively.

Interestingly enough, there is considerable regional consistency here. Bolsonaro does less poorly with the wealthiest, a group in which he has been losing general support in surveys: 39 percent of those earning over ten minimum wages believe in his version. His worst performance is among the youngest, 63 percent of whom see Moro’s version as more believable.

The string of swearwords unleashed at least 33 times in the 2-hour video, and the attacks by Bolsonaro on his enemies, did not go unnoticed.

No less than 76 percent of responders considered the President’s remarks at the meeting inappropriate, 61 percent of them very much so, and somewhat for 15 percent.

Women, consistently a weak point in Bolsonaro’s performance in polls since the 2018 election, were particularly critical, with 68 percent strongly disapproving of the President as well as residents of the Southeast and Northeast (64 percent in the country’s two most populous regions).

Only 19 percent of respondents saw the President’s remarks as appropriate, 11 percent of them choosing to find them very appropriate.

Support for Bolsonaro is most pronounced in the North and Midwest, with 14 percent strongly agreeing, but the wealthiest are those who most feel that Bolsonaro was right to speak that way: 19 percent.

In racial terms, the President is slightly more underrated by those who declared themselves black: For 72 percent of them, Bolsonaro used his position to interfere in the Federal Police, 67 percent found his language very inappropriate, and 62 percent believe Moro in the conflict.

Interviews were conducted over the phone

The telephone survey used in this study represents the total adult population of the country. The interviews are conducted by professionals trained in telephone procedures and the calls made to cell phones, used by about 90 percent of the population.

The telephone method requires quick questionnaires, without the use of visual stimuli, such as cards with names of candidates, for instance. Thus, even with a sample distribution following sex and age quotas within each macro-region, and the subsequent consideration of results according to schooling, the data should be analyzed with some caution for limiting the use of these instruments.

In this research, conducted so as to avoid personal contact between researchers and respondents, Datafolha followed the required technical recommendations, so that the results are as close as possible to the universe intended for representation.

Source: Folhapress