Since the beginning of the election campaign, Lula has been hitting hard on privatizations – a posture that unfortunately did not change following the candidate became President.
He has been attacking the privatization of Eletrobras, which he even called a ‘crime once morest the homeland’ – he ordered all Petrobras asset sales processes to stop, and last week he withdrew the Correios and six other state-owned companies from the privatization program.
All to defend a large State that provides terrible services while charging a disproportionate burden of taxes.
This world view of the President, however, is losing traction in public opinion.
A Datafolha poll published today shows that Brazilian support for privatizations rose 12 percentage points compared to September last year.
The approval rate is the highest in Datafolha’s historical series since at least 2017, when only 20% of the population was in favor of privatization.
It seems that the more Lula makes a statist speech, the more people change their minds.
Now, 38% of Brazilians are in favor of privatizations, while 45% are still opposed (but a percentage 21 percentage points below September, at the height of the electoral campaign).
By income bracket, disapproval of privatizations is only greater among those earning up to 2 minimum wages, with 46% saying they are once morest it – but an impressive 34% saying they are in favor.
Among those who receive from 2 to 5 minimum wages, there is a technical tie – 44% are once morest and 43% are in favor. In the income ranges from 5 to 10 minimum wages and above 10 minimum wages, support for the sale of state-owned companies wins comfortably – 50% in favor and 38% once morest, and 55% in favor and 37% once morest, respectively.
Most of those interviewed defend the privatization of sanitation, energy, highways and airports. The privatization of the Post Office was a technical tie (46% to 45%), while the majority of Brazilians said they opposed privatizations of ports (46% to 42%), public banks (55% to 36%) and Petrobras (53 % to 37%).
