UNTIL a couple of months ago polls suggested that Dilma Rousseff was one of the democratic world’s most popular leaders and was sailing towards a second term in a presidential election due next October. Then Brazil was suddenly engulfed by protests. They have died away—but Ms Rousseff’s popularity has suffered damage. Confidence in the presidency fell from 63% last year to just 42% in a poll published this month by Ibope.
The polls have a silver living for Ms Rousseff and her Workers’ Party (PT). Despite her problems, most of her opponents have failed to make much progress. The protests were in part a cry of anger against the whole political class. Support for Aécio Neves, the likely candidate of the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), the main opposition, has only nudged up, according to Datafolha, another pollster (see chart). Mr Neves had two successful terms as governor of Minas Gerais, Brazil’s second-most-populous state. But since moving to the Senate in 2011, he has made little impact on the national scene.Mr Neves has recently been preoccupied with internal wrangling. Party chiefs are attempting to anoint him as their candidate. But he faces a...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com
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