Bolsonaro losing support among evangelicals, his most loyal base – EXAME/IDEIA poll

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL –  Disapproval of President Jair Bolsonaro’s government is at the worst point since he took office in January 2019.

Brazilians who rate the administration as bad or terrible account for 50%. This level has been maintained for two months, fluctuating only within the error margin, which is 3 percentage points plus or minus.

People rating the government as excellent or good total 24%, and those who consider it average total 22%.

The positive rating dropped even within the group considered to be the president’s “stronghold”: the evangelicals. In January this year, among those who declared themselves followers of this religion, 45% rated Bolsonaro’s administration as good or excellent. In May, the percentage dropped to 38%. Among evangelicals, those who consider the government bad or terrible total 31%, a percentage well below that of the general population.

The data is included in the latest EXAME/IDEIA poll, a project involving Exame Invest PRO, EXAME’s investment analysis arm, and IDEIA, a research institute specialized in public opinion. The survey interviewed 1,243 people between May 17 and 20. Interviews were conducted by telephone, with calls to both residential landlines and cell phones.

Dissatisfaction

The population’s main dissatisfaction, including the evangelical community, lies in the slow pace of the vaccination process against Covid-19. Brazil is still immunizing the priority group, comprising 77 million people. According to Ministry of Health estimates, this stage will only be completed in September, and the whole population is expected to be immunized in 2022.

The severe situation of the coronavirus pandemic, with high death rates, is another point of loss of support, as explained by Pastor Ariovaldo Ramos, one of the founders of the Evangelicals Front for the Rule of Law.

“Something that may have been overlooked by some is that within the evangelical population there is a high number of Covid-19 victims. When Bolsonaro started saying that it was a minor flu, that the number of victims would be negligible, this led many evangelicals to support denialism,” says the pastor representing the organization founded in 2016 and spread across Brazil.

And support for President Bolsonaro has not only dropped among evangelicals. Among Catholics, approval fell from 27% in January to 19% in the May EXAME/IDEIA poll. Earlier this year, a group comprising over 300 Christian religious leaders lodged a motion for the president’s impeachment. In the list were Catholic priests, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, and pastors of other denominations.

Bolsonaro against suspension of services

President Bolsonaro has always been against the measures taken by governors and mayors to restrict in-person religious activities, in order to prevent crowds and the spread of the virus. The Solicitor General’s Office asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to suspend local decrees, under the argument of religious persecution.

A few days later, the court analyzed another similar claim, brought by the PSD political party and the Brazilian National Council of Pastors. The majority of justices considered that it should be up to governors and mayors to decide on the ban of in-person masses and worship services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pastor Ariovaldo Ramos further notes that he talked to other pastor friends who maintained in-person services and that, in a short time, many members in these communities contracted the coronavirus. “It was then that they began to realize that they had been deceived by the government, with an argument that in practice was not supported,” he says.

Source: Exame