Drop in Rousseff's approval rating temporary, minister says

The poorer evaluation of President Dilma Rousseff's performance as head of state, as published Sunday (Feb 8) by polling institute Datafolha, is “temporary”, Human Rights Secretariat Minister Ideli Salvatti told Agência Brasil today (9).

According to the survey, the percentage of people who describe Rousseff's government as great or good plunged from 42% to 23%; bad or terrible surged to 44% from 24%.

During an event at the Superior Military Court, Salvatti said she was convinced that, after the government's “adjustments” phase, the president's approval rating would soon start  recovering sometime this year.

“Evaluations are always temporary, and we're absolutely convinced that we're going to recover [electors' confidence] through the actions to be adopted in the first year of the president's second term,” the minister declared.

In her view, such factors as the tax raises recently announced and the corruption allegations targeting state-controlled oil giant Petrobras caused a considerable impact on people's opinion. “However, just as their impact was negative, the measures to be adopted and implemented in Rousseff's istration—I don't have the slightest doubt—will pull her evaluation back up,” Salvatti argued.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira