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Half of Brazilians exempt Bolsonaro from blame for coronavirus deaths

2020-08-15T16:01:00.291Z


Despite his controversial strategy to minimize the pandemic, the president enjoys his greatest popularity since he came to power


President Bolsonaro this Friday in Rio de Janeiro with the mayor of the city, Marcelo Crivella.Silvia Izquierdo / AP

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro begins to reap the political fruits of his controversial strategy in the face of the pandemic. Almost half of Brazilians (47%) consider that the chief executive has no responsibility for deaths from coronavirus, according to a Datafolha survey released this Saturday. And all despite the fact that the South American giant is, with 106,000 deaths, the second most affected country after the United States, even with a very significant under-notification of cases because from the beginning it has a very low test rate to monitor the evolution of the disease. disease. Respondents consider their governors even less guilty than the president, as if they considered the approach of public managers indifferent to the final result.

Since the first deaths from covid-19 occurred five months ago, Bolsonaro has been determined to minimize the severity of the crisis, criticize and even boycott the governors who recommended that citizens stay home. The president has always considered that the economic downturn is going to be much more harmful to citizens in the long run than the deaths directly caused by the virus. That almost half of Brazilians exempt him from guilt for the deceased and the three million infections is a relief for the president at the gates of municipal elections, in November, and when he is in the spotlight of the Supreme Court for interference policies in the police to protect your family.

On the other hand, 52% of those surveyed by Datafolha maintain that Bolsonaro bears some responsibility in these deaths, including 11% who consider him the main culprit. But the truth is that, in political terms, Bolsonaro is managing to turn around the erosion that at the beginning of the pandemic caused his refusal to follow any of the recommendations of the health authorities and promote the use of a drug whose efficacy against the coronavirus is not proven.

The fact is that the controversial Brazilian president currently enjoys the highest level of support (37%) since the beginning of his mandate, in January 2019. His popularity that has increased in recent weeks especially among the poorest, the young people and Brazilians living in the impoverished northeast, one of the traditional voting grounds of the opposition Lula da Silva's Workers Party (PT).

This improvement is largely due to the payment of 600 reais (111 dollars, 94 euros) approved by the Government and Congress only two weeks after the start of the confinements. Some 60 million Brazilians who were left without income by the virus receive this monthly aid, which in July reached half of the households.

The president lost two health ministers, one dismissed, the other resigned, due to discrepancies on how to manage and combat the advance of the disease. They were both doctors. They were replaced by a three-star general, Eduardo Palazuello, without any experience in health matters who is characterized by complying without question what Bolsonaro orders - such as offering chloroquine to all covid patients. The survey this Saturday indicates that almost nine out of 10 Brazilians do not know what the head of Health is called. That is probably part of its mission, that the management of the federal government goes unnoticed and the political responsibility falls on governors and mayors.


Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-08-15

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