Sao Paulo--Public support for Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff plunged to 13 percent after mass protests over the weekend against government corruption, a poll published Wednesday found.
The Datafolha poll underscored the swiftness of Rousseff's fall from grace since her re-election to a second term as leader of the South American powerhouse less than three months ago.
The poll, taken Monday and Tuesday, showed a 10-point drop in Rousseff's already low approval ratings to 13 percent.
Disapproval of her performance hit 62 percent, the highest for a Brazilian president since September 1992 on the eve of the impeachment of then president Fernando Collor de Mello, said the daily Folha de Sao Paulo, which published the poll.
Collor, who is now a senator, resigned after Brazil's lower house voted to try him amid charges of corruption that fueled mass protests and a disapproval rating that hit 68 percent.
It was the first time Rousseff's disapproval rating has topped 50 percent.
A slow-burning $3.8 billion corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras -- during a period when Rousseff was chairman of the board -- has caught fire in recent weeks as the scope of the graft, bribes and money laundering case has become clearer.
Nearly 50 politicians, many of them Rousseff allies in the Congress or leaders of her Workers Party, have been placed under investigation.
The scandal is alleged to involve inflated contracts awarded by Petrobras to some of the country's biggest construction companies over a 10-year-period, and a flood of dirty money used to bribe Petrobras officials and pay off politicians.
Rousseff has not been personally implicated in the scandal, but the public mood has been further soured by an economy on the brink of recession and with inflation rising.
Sixty percent of those polled saw the country's economic situation worsening, against 15 percent who think it will improve. That's the most negative result since Datafolha began asking the question in 1997.
The poll also showed fall-offs in Rousseff's popularity in all socio-economic groups, as well as in areas considered strongholds of the ruling Workers Party.
The Datafolha poll was based on responses from 2,842 people in 172 municipalities. It has a two point margin of error.
AFP
