Brazil leader's popularity plummets after protests
President Dilma Rousseff's popularity has nosedived since Brazil's nationwide street protests erupted, a poll said Saturday as Rio braced for more demonstrations coinciding with the Confederations Cup final between the national squad and Spain.
A Datafolha poll said Rousseff's approval rating has plunged from 57 percent down to 30 percent since June 6-7.
News reports say she is skipping Sunday's football game to avoid the prospect of being jeered.
The poll added that the percentage of people who think her government is doing a "bad or terrible" job has risen from nine to 25 percent since.
In March, Rousseff's popularity stood at 65 percent.
This month her approval rating dipped in all regions, according to the survey of 4,717 people conducted in 196 cities.
The latest poll, which has a margin of error of two percentage points, comes as a wake-up call for Rousseff and her ruling leftist Workers Party ahead presidential voting scheduled for October 2014.
"We expected this fall. It is serious for the government. The president has been weakened at a time when the economy is not performing well," said Andre Cesar, an analyst with the Brasilia-based consulting firm Prospectiva.
The protests initially broke out in Sao Paulo more than two weeks ago over increases in mass transit fares. But they quickly spread nationwide and mushroomed into a public outcry over substandard public services and the high cost of Brazil's hosting next year's World Cup.
The hundreds of thousands of Brazilians who have taken to the streets have also been demanding an end to rampant corruption among politicians.
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