Happy Monday! Today, Bolsonaro reaches 1,000 days in office, but what does he have to show for himself? The Biden administration and Brazil: close, but not too close.
Bolsonaro weakened at 1,000-day mark
As of today, Jair Bolsonaro has now spent 1,000 days as Brazil’s president. The milestone will bring him little cause for celebration, however, as his government is currently facing its lowest approval ratings since taking office in January 2019. So far, Mr. Bolsonaro’s stint as president has been marked by multiple political crises (newspaper O Globo counted an average of three per month), an internationally condemned pandemic response, and multiple threats against the democratic order.
- A new Idec poll shows that 68 percent of Brazilians disapprove of Mr. Bolsonaro’s work as president. The result is heavily affected by Brazil’s daunting economic conditions: inflation is rampant, unemployment is still massive, and entry-level salaries have dipped.
- Worse still is that Brazilians do not expect things to improve (more below).
Economy. Mr. Bolsonaro has managed to oversee a string of concessions to the private sector — mainly concerning infrastructure projects — and also has the formal independence of the Central Bank and the approval of a pension reform under...