Some 50% of Brazilians believe there is a possibility that the country’s president, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro, will try to hold a coup, according to a poll released on Saturday.
The survey, prepared by the Datafolha Institute, comes after weeks of institutional tension between the president and the Legislative and Judicial branches, which has included him in several investigations for various issues, including the dissemination of false and anti-democratic news.
According to the survey, 30% of Brazilians believe that there is “a good chance” that the head of state will break the current democratic regime, while 20% believe that such a scenario is possible, but “unlikely”.
By contrast, 45% of respondents believe that “there is no chance” of a coup led by the retired Army captain.
Likewise, 51% fear the return of the dictatorship to Brazil, as happened with the military between 1964 and 1985. That percentage is the highest since the Datafolha Institute began asking about that question in February 2014.
Although 70% defend that democracy is the best system for the country, the second highest mark since the beginning of the historical series, in 1989; while support for a dictatorial regime fell to its lowest level, just 9%.
The results of the survey are the result of 3,667 interviews with people over 16 years of age conducted between September 13 and 15, in 190 municipalities of the country. The margin of error is two points.
Bolsonaro led on September 7, Brazil’s Independence Day, a national day of protests branded as undemocratic, in which he threatened to “firm” the Supreme Court and not comply with its sentences.
The pulse between Bolsonaro and the Supreme Court has been going on for a long time and began to worsen since last year.
The president is being investigated in the high court in the framework of a process that has already led to the imprisonment of numerous far-right activists for the dissemination of false news and attacks on the country’s institutions.
Bolsonaro’s anti-democratic rhetoric has generated a wave of criticism from judges, parliamentarians and even political parties of his own base, to which he almost apologized in a so-called “Letter to the Nation.”
In the letter, Bolsonaro called for “harmony” between the powers, said he “never” wanted to “attack” the institutions and called for “union” in the face of the economic and social problems facing Brazil.
Since then, the president, who is going through his worst moment with the highest disapproval ratings since he took power in 2019, has lowered his tone in the official acts in which he has participated.
