Datafolha: 58% see Bolsonaro’s responsibility on 1/8 – 4/4/2023 – Power

The main political fact of the year so far, the coup attack on the headquarters of the three Powers on January 8 had some degree of responsibility by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) for 58% of Brazilian voters. Of these, 32% see the ex-president a lot of guilt, and 26%, a little.

According to a Datafolha survey, another 39% see no responsibility for the politician for the acts he encouraged, and 3% did not know how to respond. The institute interviewed 2,028 voters in 126 cities on March 29 and 30. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.

The act in Brasília was carried out by Bolsonaro supporters who denied his defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), gathered in a camp in front of the Army Command and reinforced by caravans coming from other states. The former president was in voluntary exile in Florida, from which he returned last week.

The episode resulted in the largest collective arrest ever made in Brazilian history, with 1,406 detainees. Today, 294 of these people are still in prison as determined by the Federal Supreme Court, which is conducting the case.

The perception that Bolsonaro has a lot of responsibility, however, has gradually fallen. In January, shortly after the crisis, Datafolha asked the same question and measured 38% blaming it a lot for the episode and 17% seeing a little guilt. Those who exempted it were the same 39%.

The case became known as the Brazilian Capitol, as it reproduced conditions for the invasion of the US Congress by supporters of Donald Trump who were unhappy with the validation of today’s President Joe Biden’s victory over his rival, on January 6, 2021. The former US president is Bolsonaro’s political idol.

In the analysis by socioeconomic strata, a curiosity arises in the research. A range in which the former president has always had a lot of support, that of the richest, is divided.

Among those who earn from 5 to 10 minimum wages, the index of those who see a lot of responsibility for Bolsonaro in 8/1 is the lowest measured, 26%. But in the next bracket, that of those who earn more than 10 salaries, the situation is the opposite: with 40%, it is the group that most blames Bolsonaro for the coup act.

In the other classic divisions of bolsonaristas and petistas, there is a homogeneity in the regional criterion, with a slight greater blame of Bolsonaro in the Northeast, a lulist stronghold, and a more accentuated view in favor of the former president among evangelicals, one of his mainstays.