Almost a third of Brazilians disapprove of Lula, poll shows

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Almost a third of Brazilians disapprove of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, putting the leftist leader at about the same level of unpopularity as his right-wing predecessor Jair Bolsonaro during the first three months of his presidency, a poll cited by the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo showed on Saturday.

Lula, who took office in January after narrowly defeating Bolsonaro in an election last October, has the approval of 38% of Brazilians, with 29% disapproving of his performance, according to a Datafolha survey.

Bolsonaro, who served as president from 2019 to the end of 2022, never formally conceded defeat to Lula. On Jan. 8, barely a week after Lula began his third term as president, Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in the federal capital Brasilia to protest the election result.

After about three months in self-imposed exile in the United States, Bolsonaro returned to Brazil this week.

Datafolha interviewed 2,028 people on Wednesday and Thursday in 126 cities. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus two percentage points.

(Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Paul Simao)