Irene Lôbo
Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília – The latest National Transportation Confederation/Sensus Institute poll (CNT-Sensus) shows that the popularity of the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva administration remains stable. The variation was small between May (39.8%) and July (40.3%) of those seeing the government positively. And those seeing the government negatively, 18.8% in May, and 20% in July, also showed only a slight change.

As for the president's personal performance, of those interviewed 59.9% said they approved, up from 57.4% in May. Those who disapproved were 30.2%, down from 32.7% in May.

This, the 77th CNT-Sensus opinion poll, was conducted between July 5 and 7, in 195 municipalities selected randomly in 24 states in all five regions of Brazil. The poll has an error margin of three percentage points plus or minus.

The poll found that most of those interviewed saw the recent corruption scandal as mainly involving members of Congress and the Workers' Party (PT). The percentage of those interviewed who said the scandal was in Congress (Chamber of Deputies) was 35.4%; those who said it was in the PT 31.2%. But those who saw a connection with president Lula were only 12%.

As for the president's handling of the scandal, 47.8% said it was adequate, while 31.9% said it was inadequate.

According to the president of the CNT, Clésio Andrade, the government's success in the economic area and social programs explain the approval of Lula.

Translator: Allen Bennett